Syrian Desert campaign (2017–2024)

Syrian Desert campaign (December 2017–December 2024)
	Part of the Syrian civil war and Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war
Date	16 December 2017 – 8 December 2024; (6 years, 11 months, 3 weeks and 1 day)
Location	Syrian Desert, Syria
Result	Islamic State victory Government forces and allies aren't able to wipe out remaining Islamic State cells in the Syrian desert; IS insurgency outlasts Ba'athist Syria;
Belligerents
Ba'athist Syria; Russia; Iran; Allied groups:; Hezbollah; Popular Mobilization Forces; Islamic Resistance in Iraq; Liwa Fatemiyoun; Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas; Free Palestine Movement; Palestine Liberation Army; Wagner Group;	Islamic State
Commanders and leaders
Suhayl al-Hasan (WIA); Haj Nasser Jamil Hadraj †; Ghassan Muhammad Hijazi †; Vyacheslav Gladkikh †; Muhammad Taysar Az-Zahir †	Abu Abdallah Sheikh Qaduli (Top IS commander in the Syrian Desert)
Units involved
Syrian Arab Armed Forces Army 4th Division 12th Brigade; ; Republican Guard 47th Regiment; ; 25th Division; 2nd Corps 14th Division; ; 3rd Corps 3rd Division Qalamoun Shield (until 2018); ; 11th Division; 17th Division 137th Brigade; ; 18th Division 131st Brigade; ; ; 5th Assault Corps 4th Brigade Ba'ath Brigades; ; Liwa Al-Quds; ISIS Hunters (until 2023); ; ; Air Force; National Defence Forces; Local Defence Forces Baqir Brigade; Lions of Hussein; ; ; Military Security Shield Forces; Russian Armed Forces Ground Forces 29th Army 200th Brigade; ; ; Airborne Forces 45th Brigade; ; Aerospace Forces; ; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Kata'ib Hezbollah; Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada; "Al-Qatarji" militia; "Hamisho" militia; “Mohamed Hamshou” militia; Qamr Bani Hashim Division; “Abu Zainab” militia	Military of the Islamic State
Strength
Unknown number of SAA soldiers; 1,385 Iranian-backed fighters (2019)	2,000–3,000 main force, 300 reinforcements (2019 estimate); 500–600 (UN estimate, 2024);
Casualties and losses
2018 offensive; 237 killed ; 9 killed; March 2019–2024; 2,563 killed; 292 killed; 4 killed; Total: 3,105 killed	2018 offensive; 138 killed; March 2019–2024; 1,336 killed; Total: 1,474 killed
	280 civilians killed (March 2019–2024); Total: 4,859 killed

The Syrian Desert campaign was a campaign of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces forces and their allies aimed at eliminating the remnants of the Islamic State in the Syrian Desert region.

By 2019, after a number of successful Syrian operations, the government forces had reached the dead end as the conflict evovled into a guerilla war waged by the Islamic State, represented by hit-and-run tactics, ambushes and occasional clashes against pro-government militas and local population. The IS cells were able to deal enormous cassualties to Syrian troops and outlive the Ba'athist state, which ultimately collapsed in December 2024 following opposition offensives.