The SDF said in a statement that its anti-terrorism units (YAT) conducted a security operation with support from the global coalition, targeting “an ISIS terrorist cell consisting of two terrorists in al-Karamah, east of Raqqa City.
“Supported by Coalition aerial surveillance, our YAT forces raided the hideout of the terrorist cell. One of the terrorists, Abu al-Harith, refused to answer the call for safe surrender and opened fire on our forces who dealt with the situation professionally and eliminated him,” said the SDF, adding that another member, named Saad Salim al-Hamdan, was captured in the raid.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land amid a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate”.
Though the jihadists no longer control any territory, they continue to pose a security risk by carrying out kidnappings, hit-and-run attacks, and bombings, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who control Rojava, conduct frequent operations against the group.
The Kurdish-led and US-backed SDF fought the lion’s share of the battle against ISIS and arrested thousands of the group’s fighters along with their wives and children when they crushed ISIS territorially and took the group’s last stronghold in Syria in 2019.
The SDF has increased its anti-ISIS operations in recent weeks.
On Saturday, the SDF announced that its forces killed an ISIS operative during a security operation in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province.
In late March, the SDF warned that ISIS still poses a threat to the world and the region as its defeat “requires dismantling its ideological breeding ground.”
“ISIS is still trying to recruit new terrorist elements, attempting to radicalize them into its ranks,” said the SDF, calling on the international community to “collaborate effectively” with its forces.
