SDF member killed by ‘unknown assailants’ in Deir ez-Zor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region —A member of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has been killed and several others were wounded in Deir-ez Zor, eastern Syria, according to the Rojava Information Center (RIC).

An SDF soldier was killed and 7 others were wounded when unknown assailants on motorcycles opened fire on their bus in Deir ez-Zor, the RIC tweeted on Monday. 

The attack comes after the SDF launched a fresh large-scale security operation, with the support of the global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Deir ez-Zor countryside on Sunday. 

The SDF and Syrian regime forces control Deir ez-Zor province, but ISIS is still active in the area.

The RIC has recorded an increase in sleeper cell attacks in the province.

Unknown gunmen shot dead a leader of the SDF in Deir ez-Zor on Tuesday.

ISIS seized control of swathes of land in Syria and Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019. The militants, however, remain a threat on both sides of the border, carrying out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions.

In its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba, ISIS claimed on Thursday it had conducted 12 attacks in Syria between April 29 and May 5, killing and injuring 17 people.