ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have announced the arrest of 30 suspected members of the Islamic State (ISIS) in the first two days of their fresh military operation on the Syria-Iraq border. It also “cleared” around 100 villages in the region from the group, according to an SDF statement. The multi-ethnic SDF announced the launch of operation ‘Deterrence of Terrorism’ on Thursday, following what they describe as thorough information gathering, to “pursue and track the cells of ISIS terrorist organization on the Syrian-Iraqi border,” according to a Friday statement. SDF commanders said on Friday that 20 ISIS suspects were arrested, but that initial number has since been revised. “Around 30 Syrian and Iraqi mercenaries [of ISIS] were arrested in the operation,” read another statement from the SDF Friday midnight. The latest statement also pinpointed the operation as taking place in and around the Syria-Iraq border areas of Hasaka, Baghouz and Deir ez-Zor. The SDF also confiscated light weapons and IEDs prepared for assassination attacks, and found tunnels of the group. The operation resulted in a “70 kilometre length and 60 kilometre wide" stretch of land being cleared, "including nearly 100 villages,” the statement said. No SDF casualties have been reported so far, the statement added. US-led anti-ISIS coalition spokeperson Colonel Myles B.Caggins III confirmed on Twitter that around 30 ISIS suspects were arrested in the first and second day of the operation, adding that 78 hideouts of ISIS were destroyed. Around 6,000 SDF fighters are taking part in the military campaign and it is expected to last for about five days, military sources told the SDF-affiliated Ronahi TV — though in their statement, the forces say the operation will continue “until completion of the full mission.” ISIS took control of swaths of Iraqi and Syrian in 2014, but was declared defeated in the two countries in 2017 and 2019 respectfully. SDF commander Adnan Afrini told Rudaw TV from the frontlines that “a large number" of ISIS fighters are on the Syria-Iraq border, though he could not provide an estimate.
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