ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced that Turkish military forces, the Free Syrian Army and Turkey-backed Islamist proxies had successfully expelled “terrorist organizations,” from the Syria-Turkey border. “From Azaz to Jarablus, our 91-kilometer border has been completely secured,” he said during a televised speech. UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the claims made by Yildirim, stating that militants backed by “Turkish tanks and warplanes” had taken several villages “after ISIS withdrew from them, ending ISIS presence… on the border.” ISIS and Turkey once had a profitable relationships with Syrian oil illegally being traded between the two. This was not reduced to blood-oil but also stolen antiquities and other equipment.

Homs, Syria (12:35 A.M.) – The Russian Air Force carried out several airstrikes over the northeastern countryside of the Homs Governorate on Wednesday, targeting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) headquarters near the Al-Sha’er Gas Fields. According to the government-backed “National Defense Forces,” the Islamic State’s headquarters near the Al-Sha’er Gas Fields was destroyed on Wednesday after a violent raid was conducted over their positions. In addition to the airstrikes over the Al-Sha’er Gas Fields, the Russian and Syrian air forces also targeted the Islamic State’s positions at the desert villages of ‘Arak and Sukhanah.