“We carried out a qualitative and precise security operation yesterday, which resulted in the arrest of a number of members of this cell, and a quantity of light, medium, and heavy weapons were seized,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said, citing the interior ministry.
The militants were planning to use the weapons to “destabilize security and stability in the region,” SANA said about the operation, carried out in a Damascus suburb.
ISIS attacks in Syria have largely been focused on the Kurdish-held regions of north and east Syria, but attacks on the new Damascus-affiliated authorities are rare.
ISIS rose to power and swept through swathes of Syria in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate.”
But the militants were territorially defeated in 2019 as local Syrian and Kurdish fighters, supported by a US-led international coalition, clawed back territory from the group.
In a landmark Riyadh meeting, US President Donald Trump earlier this month called on Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to “help the United States to prevent the resurgence of ISIS,” according to a White House Statement.
ISIS has continued to carry out attacks on Kurdish-led forces. On Monday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto army of northeast Syria (Rojava), said that it thwarted an ISIS attack in the eastern Deir ez-Zor province, which injured a civilian.
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.
