Central Syria campaign

The Central Syria campaign, known as "Operation Khuzam", or "Lavender", was a large-scale military operation of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) against the Islamic State (IS) during the Syrian Civil War. Its goal was to capture the strategic oil town of Al-Sukhnah, and besiege and capture 11,000 square kilometers of ISIL territory in central Syria, after which the Syrian Army would advance towards Deir ez-Zor, and lift the three-year ISIL siege of the government's enclave in the city. Afterwards, the Syrian Army advanced towards the Islamic State's then-capital of Mayadin.

The campaign was concurrent with the Raqqa campaign conducted by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the Islamic State's former capital city and stronghold in Syria, Raqqa. In addition, the SDF launched their own offensive in mid-September south along the Euphrates River, after Syrian government forces reached Deir ez-Zor city.

On 14 July 2017, the Syrian Army launched an offensive in the south of Raqqa province, advancing south of the town of Resafa and coming within 70 kilometers of Sukhnah after reaching the administrative border of Homs province. Between 15 and 16 July, a string of oil wells and gas fields was captured by the military. By 18 July, government forces pushed ISIL out of the western and southwestern parts of Raqqa province, while also reaching the outskirts of the Bishri Mountains, an ISIL stronghold.

With the start of the Syrian Government's push, the Russian Air Force launched a large-scale aerial campaign against ISIL in Raqqa and Homs provinces. An ISIL command-and-control center in Deir ez-Zor, targets along the Homs-Deir ez-Zor highway and positions near Sukhnah were reportedly hit.

Meanwhile, on 16 July, ISIL repelled an assault by the Syrian Army on the Hamimah area on the provincial border of Homs and Deir ez-Zor, killing a dozen soldiers and injuring or capturing 28 more. The captured soldiers were later reportedly decapitated. ISIL captured a tank and ammunition. Three days later, an ISIL raid on the administrative border overran an Army encampment before withdrawing. Concurrently, heavy fighting also erupted in Hama province. By 19 July, these clashes left 40 pro-government fighters, including two brigadier generals, and 29 militants dead.

On 21 July, the Syrian Army advanced between 30 and 35 kilometers east of Resafa. Four days later, major advances by government forces in the southeast of Raqqa reduced ISIL's control of the province to 10 percent. At this point, the Army was nine kilometers from the administrative border of Deir ez-Zor province. The Army was also making gains along the western bank of the Euphrates river. By the end of the day, they were six kilometers from the town of Maadan, located on the southern bank of the river, and the Deir ez-Zor provincial border.

Meanwhile, on 23 July, the Syrian Army's 5th Corps in the eastern part of Homs province launched an operation towards Sukhnah and the next day reportedly broke through ISIL's defense line before the town. On 25 July, massive Army reinforcements were arriving east of Palmyra for the upcoming assault on Sukhnah, following the implementation of a Russia/US-brokered ceasefire with the rebel FSA in the southwestern Badia region, where government forces had been conducting a two-month campaign. At the same time, Syrian Army troops advanced west of the Shaer gas field in the eastern countryside of Homs.

Elsewhere, on 25 July, the Syrian Army, backed up by Palestinian Al-Quds Brigade and local fighters, resumed their assault on the ISIL-held town of Qualib al-Thor in the eastern countryside of Hama Province. In the days before the resumption of Army operations in eastern Hama, the Russian Air Force conducted multiple strikes against ISIL.