ISIS New Tactic: Blending into Civilian Population

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Proliferating reports about the enduring warfare within Syrian region between Russian-backed Assad regimes and opposition fighters suggest that many of terrorist facilities have been destroyed to its very core with US-led coalition also taking part in such venture.

Reports collected also suggest that the wave of attacks targeting specific terrorist-dominated regions have allowed for the regime to retake many areas previously subjugated under terrorists ruling.

While it is true that Russian air support has provided the Assad regime with an access to making substantial progresses in Aleppo’s southern countryside and rural areas around Latakia province, the opposition group or the terrorists have been learning to adapt with the regime’s tactics and therefore they are trying to outsmart such move.

A leading force called Fastaqim Kama Umirt which resides in the areas where weapons are stored such as in Khan Tuman and Jabal al-Ais has reportedly grown accustomed to the methods exploited by Russian foreign fighters and the regimes.

An independent Syrian journalist Saleem al-Omar told Newsweek that the opposition fighters “have transformed the conflict from one of direct confrontation into a series of smaller attack and retreat skirmishes that have weighed down advancing forces and taken away the advantages provided by air-cover and heavy weaponry”.

According to Saleem, the opposition group has been conducting small- scale attacks targeting leaders of regimes forces in many areas and such is a progress that has been overlooked by the larger international population.

“The rebels are working on recovering al-Ais. It’s our turn now, since the enemy forces have gone from the offensive to the defensive,” Saleem stated further.

It is particularly alarming to have the rebels excelling without having the larger focus being concentrated upon and narrowed down to it and its growing capability.

According to nationalinterest, a group of insurgents penetrated Camp Bastion in Afghanistan back in September 2012 where they wreaked havoc and “represented the greatest operational loss of U.S aircraft since the Vietnam war”. This already suggests that the opposition group’s is equipped with the capability of resorting to method of infiltration that it is likely to desire such actualization through infiltration in Russian airbase within Syrian region.

“The dozens of combat aircraft at the base will prove a tempting target for ISIS infiltrators, potentially working with base personnel. Damaging or destroying Russian aircraft on the ground would provide the same kind of propaganda coup for ISIS as attacking Camp Bastion provided the Taliban.”

It has also been learned that airstrikes are minimally effective as the terrorist contingent had already evacuated its leaders, fighters and heavy equipment from facilities that have been previously targeted by the West and its coalition.

"Its fighters avoid large gatherings and mix with the civilian population. The shock effect of being bombed will be the less because the Syrian air force has long been bombing rebel-held cities and towns” as cited in the Independent.

Hence, the group has learned thus far the tactics used by the West, by Russia and Al- Assad regime and they have not just adjusted to it, they have better plans to outsmart those moves.