A/HRC/27/60 A. Government forces 10. Government forces3 made slow but significant advances in most strategic areas. In key governorates, including Rif Damascus, Homs and Aleppo, they shrunk opposition-held territories and severed their lines of communication. Direct confrontations with the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), however, are rare and mostly limited to sporadic air strikes in Ar Raqqah, Aleppo and Dayr az Zawr governorates. 11. The capacity of Government forces has been enhanced through significant organizational, strategic and tactical readjustments. The Government is increasingly capable of massing all elements of military power during offensive operations targeting priority objectives. It succeeded in holding positions in governorates where it is unable or unwilling to conduct offensives, such as Idlib and Dara’a. As part of its strategy for controlling the population, it has combined long-lasting sieges with heavy aerial and artillery bombardment, leading to dozens of forced truces in Homs and Damascus and the surrounding countryside. Forced truces, a mark of the Government’s strategy of siege and bombardment, are often followed by mass arrests of men of fighting age, many of whom disappear. 12. The Government continues to rely on technical, training and logistical assistance provided by external allies. Government forces recently experienced shortages of combat manpower as Iraqi militia returned to fight in Iraq, which curtailed their ability to simultaneously deploy troops on multiple fronts. B. Non-State armed groups 1. Anti-Government armed groups 13. Armed groups have been simultaneously engaged on multiple fronts fighting Government forces, ISIS and among themselves. Lacking the necessary combat capabilities, they failed to reverse their adversaries’ advances in areas previously part of their major strongholds in Rif Damascus, eastern Aleppo and Dayr az Zawr governorates. Weakened by infighting, they have suffered large defections to ISIS owing to the latter’s superior financial and operational capabilities. 14. Military successes in Dara’a and Idlib governorates underscored some armed groups’ ability to prevent the Government from regaining full control over territory. In most of those victories, armed groups labelled as moderate continued to operate under ad hoc operation rooms, closely coordinating with extremist groups, including the Al-Qaidaaffiliated Jabhat al-Nusra. 15. Divisions and rivalries prevented insurgents from increasing their operational effectiveness. Despite multiple restructuring initiatives, they failed to integrate under a cohesive structure and leadership owing to ideological, political, tribal and personal divergences. Efforts by external backers to reinforce the so-called “vetted moderate armed opposition” failed to reverse the dominance of radical armed groups. 2. Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham 16. Recent gains by ISIS in Iraq boosted its military capabilities, seriously affecting the power balance inside the Syrian Arab Republic, both materially and psychologically. Far 3 4 “Government forces”, unless specified otherwise, comprise the Syrian Armed Forces, intelligence forces and associated foreign and local militias, including Hezbollah, the shabbiha and the popular Committees/National Defence Forces.