Syrian Government Alters It's War Strategy To Combat ISIS

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Why ISIS Gains In Iraq Are Reshaping Syrian Regime's War Strategy (+video) -- Nicholas Blanford, CSM

Syria's regime has relied on Shiite fighters to claw back territory from rebels. A draw down of Iraqi Shiites to defend the homeland from ISIS militants puts more strain on Hezbollah.

Beirut, Lebanon — With Islamic militants at the vanguard of what appears to be a general Sunni uprising against Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated government, the conflicts in Syria and Iraq are beginning to merge under the strains of sectarian and ethnic competition.

The shockwaves are already reverberating in Syria’s civil war and changing the calculus of both the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian armed opposition. One element of that opposition is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIL or ISIS. Last week it seized Mosul and it has advanced on Baghdad, raising alarm bells in Washington – and in Damascus, which had previously shown tacit tolerance for a group that controls a swath of northeast Syria.

Over the weekend, the Syrian Air Force staged its first major attacks on ISIS strongholds in the provinces of Raqqa and Hasakeh. These strongholds were the launching pad for the group's recent gains in Iraq. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Syrian jets had targeted ISIS headquarters in Raqqa and the group's religious courts. There was no word on casualties.

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My Comment: ISIS's advancements have been a disaster for Iraq, but the next big loser will probably be Syria. The Syrian government is now fighting an invigorated militant organization that now has vast cash reserves, a massive arsenal of mostly American weapons, and a reputation of being winners on the battlefield that will probably attract even more volunteers and fighters. The Syrian army is already exhausted .... the prospect that their allies may now rush to assist Iraq will only mean less troops for Assad to rely on, and more pressure on his own military to make up for this shortfall.

Update: The Syrian military is clearly seeing this growing threat .... for the first time since the start of the Syrian civil war Syrian warplanes have bombed ISIS targets in Iraq .... Syrian war planes strike inside Iraq, sources say (FOX News).