ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members on Tuesday attacked a checkpoint of the Kurdish-led internal security forces (Asayish) in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province, a war monitor said, and no casualties were reported.
“Armed ISIS cells riding motorcycles attacked a checkpoint manned by the Asayish in the town of al-Sahba in the eastern Deir ez-Zor countryside with machine guns,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
The clashes resulted in no casualties.
It was the 157th ISIS attack against Kurdish-led security forces since the beginning of the year, according to the Observatory. The attacks have killed 45 Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) members and 8 ISIS militants.
ISIS has intensified its attacks against Kurdish-led forces in north and east Syria, with the militants seeking to exploit a security vacuum sparked by increased instability following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The SDF, which functions as the de facto military force of northeast Syria (Rojava), has played a leading role in the fight against ISIS with support from the United States. However, SDF chief Mazloum Abdi has consistently warned about the ongoing threat posed by ISIS.
ISIS and its so-called “caliphate” was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, two years after its defeat in Iraq, but the group has recently sought to regain ground, especially after the fall of the Assad regime.
