“On Friday at 10:30 pm, using a motorcycle and machine guns, an ISIS terrorist cell attacked the al-Atal roundabout checkpoint in the town of al-Shuhail. Our forces repelled the attack and forced the attackers to flee, without sustaining any casualties or damage,” the Asayish said in a statement.
It added that there has been an “intensification” of ISIS attacks in the area, particularly in and around the towns of al-Shuhail, Dhiban, and al-Busayrah on the Euphrates River about 90 kilometres from the Iraqi border.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto army of northeast Syria (Rojava), has carried out numerous operations this year to counter what they say is a resurgence in ISIS activity targeting both their forces and civilians.
ISIS and its so-called “caliphate” was territorially defeated in 2019, but the group has recently sought to regain ground, taking advantage of instability in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Earlier in June, the United States killed an ISIS official “who was involved in planning external operations threatening US citizens, our partners, and civilians” in an airstrike in northwest Syria.
