ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Islamic State (ISIS) appears to have expanded its destabilizing activities in Syria's eastern Deir ez-Zor province where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) faced unrest last week following the assassination of a tribal leader in the area.
ISIS published a 13-minute-long video on Sunday which shows members of the groups’ sleeper cells fomenting unrest and spreading fear by killing local Arabs, targeting members of the SDF and their American allies and setting houses and vehicles on fire.
The group claimed in the video to have targeted an American base inside the al-Omar oilfield, east of Deir ez-Zor, with Katyusha rockets. The oil field is near the towns of Dheeban and al-Shuhail — in the lower Euphrates valley — two hotspots where the group has repeatedly attacked SDF forces and targeted those working with the Kurds.
In the video, masked men purportedly from ISIS are seen setting alight vehicles belonging to Arab SDF fighters or those who work with the SDF.
“Setting on fire the vehicle of apostate Anis Al-Sabil the Mukhtar of Komin in al-Shuhail, after killing him,” the video reads after a truck is set on fire by a masked man.
Al-Shuhail is situated close to al-Omar oilfield.
In the video, ISIS details recent activity including killings, explosions, booby trapping vehicles and targeting armed SDF convoys. ISIS claims that they carried out "358 operations" including detonating 138 booby traps, 106 murders, 71 clashes, and 43 other various acts in Deir ez-Zor from September 1, 2019 to July 21, 2020.
The towns of Ziban, al-Shuhail, and al-Huwaij in eastern Deir ez-Zor have seen days of unrest after an Arab tribal leader, Sheikh Mutsher Hamud Jeidan al-Hifl, was killed by unknown gunmen on August 2. Security is a problem for the region that is under SDF control, but borders regime areas and is a hotspot of ISIS activity.
The SDF condemned the incident as a “terrorist” attack and blamed ISIS. In recent raids, the SDF arrested seven people suspected of being behind a number of attacks and kidnappings in the province. Conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said six “civilians” were among those arrested by the SDF in al-Shuhail, “including a family of five people.”
Locals and members of the Agaidat tribe, of which the sheikh was a prominent leader, protested his death on Tuesday. The demonstrations began peacefully but turned violent as they were joined by people carrying weapons and clashed with the SDF.
A top SDF commander in the province told Rudaw English on Thursday that two members of their forces were killed. The commander, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, explained that the armed people who clashed with the SDF were not civilians or protesters but “saboteurs.”
Tensions between the Arab population of Deir ez-Zor and the SDF have simmered for months, but rarely turn violent.
SDF officials, commanders, and media have accused the Syrian regime, Russia, and Turkish-backed groups of encouraging unrest in the oil-rich province and trying to create disunity between Kurds and Arabs.
ISIS was declared territoriality defeated in Syria in 2019 and in Iraq in 2017, but the group remains a threat on both sides of the border, including carrying out hit-and-run attacks and abductions.
A new Pentagon published late July covering the period April 1 to June 30, 2020 warned that "ISIS conducted a surge of attacks during Ramadan," exploiting COVID-19 restrictions to conduct more attacks in regions held by the SDF.
