“At approximately 8:00 pm today, two ISIS terrorists riding a motorcycle targeted one of our military vehicles with machine gun fire, resulting in the martyrdom of two of our heroic fighters … in the town of al-Bahra, in the Hajin area of eastern Deir ez-Zor,” the SDF said in a statement.
It labeled the attack as “part of ISIS’s ongoing efforts to destabilize the security and stability in areas our forces have liberated from the grip of terrorism,” vowing to continue the fight against the jihadists’ “growing threat” in the region.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate.” The SDF defeated the group in Syria in 2019 with the help of the US-led global coalition against ISIS.
The Kurdish-led and US-backed 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.
On Wednesday, the SDF announced the capture of a senior ISIS operative in Rojava’s Hasaka city, in an operation with support from the US-led global coalition.
Earlier in the day, at least one Kurdish-led internal security forces (Asayish) member was injured in two separate suspected ISIS attacks in Deir ez-Zor.
