“Our SDF forces successfully thwarted another ISIS terrorist attack in Deir Ezzor’s eastern countryside when an ISIS terrorist cell attempted an attack on the Dhiban Brigade using RPGs and machine guns,” the SDF said on X.
“Our forces swiftly responded and foiled the attack,” it added.
On Friday, the Kurdish-led and US-backed force arrested a “high-ranking” ISIS leader in Deir ez-Zor, identified as the economic “emir” in the area who extorted money from civilians “and threatened those who refused with death.”
ISIS captured large swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in a brazen 2014 offensive. The group’s so-called “caliphate” was declared territorially defeated in 2019 but remains a security threat and continues to carry out hit-and-run attacks, abductions, and bombings.
The jihadists have tried to take advantage of the changing security landscape in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to regroup and reorganize, particularly in the country’s vast central and eastern deserts.
The SDF played a key role in defeating ISIS in Syria and captured thousands of the group’s fighters and their kin. The Kurdish-led force operates alongside hundreds of US troops as part of the global coalition to defeat ISIS.
In mid-January, SDF chief Mazloum Abdi noted that 10,000 ISIS fighters are imprisoned in Syria, 2,000 of whom are considered "highly dangerous." He stressed the “need to intensify efforts to continue the fight against ISIS if we don’t want to see it make a comeback.”
