ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Monday that it thwarted an attack from the Islamic State (ISIS) in the eastern Deir ez-Zor province, which injured a civilian, amid a spate of militant attacks in the area.
“Yesterday, our forces foiled a terrorist attack carried out by an ISIS cell on one of our military points in the town of al-Sabha. The cell, using motorcycles and machine guns, launched a treacherous and indiscriminate attack,” the SDF said in a statement.
At least one civilian was injured “due to the indiscriminate gunfire by the terrorists,” according to the statement.
It is the latest in a recent spike of ISIS attacks in the area, with the SDF having warned for months about a resurgence in ISIS activity targeting both their forces and civilians.
Kurdish security forces (Asayish) said that another SDF patrol was attacked in Deir ez-Zor simultaneously with the first ambush.
In a statement later on Monday, the Asayish stated that they began “deploying extensively in the area to track down the perpetrators and ensure the safety and stability of civilians.”
Last week, an ISIS attack in Deir ez-Zor killed one SDF fighter and injured another.
Two days prior, the SDF captured an ISIS cell in Deir ez-Zor. The raid followed another operation where 10 ISIS suspects were captured in the same province after an SDF fighter was killed and three were injured.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of land in Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate.”
The group was territorially defeated in 2019, but has recently sought to regain ground, taking advantage of instability in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The SDF, backed by the United States, is the de facto army of northeast Syria (Rojava), has fought to prevent the militants from reestablishing a foothold in the shifting security landscape.
