ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Islamic State (ISIS) cells targeted the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria on Thursday, killing two and exploiting the security vacuum caused by the collapse of the Assad regime. “ISIS is trying to take advantage of the chaos prevailing in Syrian territory to revive itself and have the strength to carry out terrorist acts, mainly targeting the areas of north and eastern Syria,” the SDF said. The two Kurdish SDF members were killed in separate attacks in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor province. ISIS militants also “fired an RPG shell” at a water station in Dhiban, a town on the Euphrates River, causing material damage. The SDF noted the attacks coincided with an offensive by Turkey-backed militias and said “it has become clear that the danger of ISIS increases” as long as the Turkish-backed operation continues. On Thursday, Kurdish security forces (Asayish) announced they arrested four ISIS members on Wednesday in al-Junayna, in western Deir ez-Zor, in coordination with the global coalition. They also confiscated a cache of weapons and ammunition, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. ISIS jihadists swept through large swathes of Syria in 2014 and were territorially defeated in 2019, but bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions attributed to the group are common. After the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the United States-led coalition against ISIS and its ally the SDF, which controls northeast Syria (Rojava), have sought to keep the militants from regaining their footing in the new security landscape.
