SDF arrest 22 ISIS suspects in two-day Deir ez-Zor campaign

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the arrest of 22 Islamic State (ISIS) suspects late on Friday after a two-day military operation in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor. 

“During the first day of the operation, Counter-Terrorism Units arrested 17 terrorists and collaborators, and on the second day, the commandos arrested five others who were using civilian homes to hide and turn them into IED factories,” the SDF announced in a statement.

The multi-ethnic force also uncovered “several secret tunnels and camouflage trenches” and seized “large quantities of weapons and explosive materials” in al-Busayrah town. 

In the operation, the SDF was able to “thwart potential terrorist operations prepared by those terrorist cells.” 

The operation was supported from the air by the global coalition against ISIS. 

ISIS seized control of territory across northern Iraq and eastern Syria in 2014 and was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but it remains a threat in both countries, especially in the border areas where the SDF has carried out several recent military operations. 

According to the SDF’s latest monthly report, ISIS carried out 32 attacks in May, mostly in Deir ez-Zor, “through bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and killings, in addition to committing 11 assassinations of Syrian and Iraqi refugees who want to distance themselves from Daesh [ISIS] extremist ideology inside al-Hol camp.”  

Al-Hol camp in Hasaka houses just under 60,000 people, most are family members of suspected ISIS fighters. 

The SDF report, published Friday, said the force had arrested 178 ISIS suspects in northeast Syria. “They were responsible for assassinations, arms smuggling, information transfer, and targeting civilians and military forces,” the report stated.