ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish forces announced on Monday that they had arrested one of the emirs of the Islamic State (ISIS) in eastern Syria earlier in the week following a series of operations against the group in the area.
Asayish, internal forces in Kurdish-held areas of Syria, said in a statement that they carried out a “qualitative operation” in Deir ez-Zor province early Saturday.
The province is partially controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) while the rest is in the hands of the regime forces and militants backed by Damascus and Tehran.
Asayish said the arrest came after “a series of precise security operations aimed at enhancing security and stability in the region.”
Asayish accused the unidentified ISIS suspect of “carrying out a series of recent bombings and assassinations that targeted civilians” in one of the towns of the province.
A “limited” confrontation took place between the suspected ISIS emir and Asayish forces, it noted.
The jihadist group seized control of swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014. But their so-called caliphate was brought to an end in both countries by 2019.
Despite its territorial defeat, ISIS has continued to pose a security threat in Iraq through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions.
In mid-November, the SDF announced the completion of a week-long operation against ISIS sleeping cells in the notorious al-Hol camp in northeast Syria (Rojava), detaining 79 suspected members of the group.
