News Analysis: Islamic State's setback in Iraq alone could negatively rebound on Syria

As the Islamic State (IS) group started to take a beating in Iraq, chances are high that its fighters will intensify their presence in Syria, analysts say.

On Wednesday, the Iraqi forces, backed by Shiite militiamen, retook the city of Tikrit northwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, which paves the way for the Iraqi forces to drive the extremists out of the city of Mousul and the capital of Nineveh province.

Across the border in Syria, analysts believe that the retreat of the IS extremists in Iraq, even though it's a positive thing for the Iraqis, could increase the negative impacts on Syria as this group has an increasing influence in the war-torn country, where it is not suffering defeats like those in Iraq, but even advancing more.

On Wednesday, the terrorist group attacked and captured almost 70 percent of a main camp for Palestinian refugees south of the capital Damascus as their comrades were losing ground in Tikrit.

"Of course the decline of the Islamic State group in Iraq is positive in terms of weakening this terrorist group and cut its fund lines by depriving them from using the Iraqi oil, but eventually we are (Syrians) the ones suffering from the negative repercussions," said Maher Murhej, head of the Syrian Youth Party.

Murhej said "thousands of Iraqi militants with the IS will flee to Syria when they start suffering more defeats in Iraq."

Another analyst, Mahmour Muri, told Xinhua that "apparently there is a regional and international decision to defeat the IS in Iraq but there is no similar one to defeat it in Syria."

He added that the U.S., which has led a coalition to strike the IS in Iraq and Syria, is cooperating and coordinating their strikes with the Iraqi soldiers, but they are not doing the same with the Syrian army.

The U.S.-led anti-terror coalition has been striking the IS positions in northern and eastern Syria since late last year. However, the strikes have done little to stem the momentum of that expansionist group.

Osama Danura, a political researcher, told Xinhua that the downfall of the IS in Tikrit is a victory for the Iraqi army and a sign that such a group doesn't really enjoy a public support there. He, however, said that Syria and Iraq are in the same front in the battle against the IS and couldn't be separated.

"We can't talk about restoring security in Iraq without restoring it in Syria. If the IS had kept its influence in Syria, it would still cause trouble and turbulences in Iraq, so both fronts have become one now," he said.

He also stressed that in order to weaken the IS in both countries, there should be a high-level of coordination between both countries and a joint military command room between the Iraqi and Syrian army forces.

The recent visit of Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to Syria last month "held the features of such coordination and we could see changes on ground in the next stage," he added.

Stressing that the IS cannot be fought in one place only, Danura said the IS has Iraqi and Syrian fighters among its ranks "and those fighters would want to re-open fronts in their respective countries."

"The IS doesn't recognize borders between countries because it has a cross-border ideology and thus it threats to infiltrate any country and any border," Danura said.

Danura added "if the anti-terror international coalition aims at weakening the IS in Iraq, and not in Syria, it would be pushing those fighters, not only to ramp up their presence in Syria, but to spread into other regional countries."

The notorious IS militants might have crossed the borders and posed an imminent threat to the societies in the Arab world, whose establishment could date back to 2006 when al-Qaida announced the creation of Islamic State in Iraq (ISI).

In early 2013, the ISI entered Syria and participated in the civil war against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It later declared its merger with an al-Qaida-linked group in Syria, known as al-Nusra Front, under the new name of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

In February 2014, the al-Qaida organization said it had cut links with the militant group ISIS led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In June 2014, the ISIS, which had seized large areas in Syria and Iraq, declared the establishment of the caliphate Islamic rule and changed its name to IS. Endit