“Due to the escalation of Daesh [ISIS] operations and attacks in the Deir ez-Zor area, a wide operation was launched on February 4 with the participation of the Syrian Democratic Forces, People's Protection Units, Women’s Protection Units, and local security forces,” said the SDF in a statement on Friday.
The new operation is in retaliation for the deaths of “two revolutionary women,” the SDF added, referring to the assassinations of two municipal council women in Hasaka, northeast Syria (Rojava) late January. Hind Latif al-Khadir was head of the economy committee in the administration of the town of Til Shayir, and Sa’da Faysal al-Hermas was co-chair of the town’s people’s council. ISIS claimed responsibility.
The killings drew international condemnation.
The SDF said they have made tens of arrests and confiscated large amounts of ammunition in the first day of the ongoing operation.
The large scale operation against ISIS is continuing on the second day along the Iraqi border and Deir al-Zour desert. So far YPG and YPJ Anti-Terror units and SDF CT forces arrested more than a dozen terrorists and confiscated ammunition belonging to the cells. pic.twitter.com/xOltraUILb
— People’s Defense Units (@DefenseUnits) February 5, 2021
ISIS seized control of swaths 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.
The SDF has conducted multiple operations against ISIS sleeper cells, often in coordination with the global coalition against ISIS. They arrested four ISIS suspects in Deir ez-Zor and al-Shadadi on Wednesday, with American air support.
Last summer, the SDF arrested scores of ISIS suspects in operations in Deir ez-Zor province.
Updated at 6:21 pm
