Syria
Syrian security forces capture members of an Islamic State (ISIS) cell in Daraya area, southwest of Damascus on December 21, 2025. Photo: SyrianMoI/X
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s interior ministry announced on Sunday that it had dismantled an Islamic State (ISIS) cell in Damascus countryside, arresting its leader and several members. The operation comes a day after the United States carried out tens of airstrikes on ISIS positions in Syria in response to the killing of three Americans earlier this month.
In a statement on X, the ministry quoted Brigadier General Ahmed al-Dalati, head of internal security in the Damascus countryside, saying that “specialized units from internal security, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Service, conducted a precise security operation in the Daraya area,” southwest of Damascus.
Dalati added that the operation led to the “complete dismantling of the terrorist cell, the arrest of its leader and six members, and the seizure of weapons and ammunition intended for their terrorist activities.”
He further emphasized that the operation is “part of an ongoing strategy to cut off sources of terrorism, prevent threats to community security, and achieve peace and stability.”
Syria in late November became the 90th country to join the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. Since then, its security forces have ramped up efforts to eliminate ISIS remnants, particularly in and around the capital, Damascus.
On Wednesday, Syrian security forces raided an ISIS hideout in the Dummar neighborhood, in northwestern Damascus, seizing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and “suicide drones,” the interior ministry said in a previous statement.
A day earlier, Syrian internal security forces dismantled an ISIS cell responsible for “multiple attacks on security and military patrols across Idlib and Aleppo provinces in northwestern and northern Syria,” respectively, the same ministry relayed.
The intensified crackdown comes days after two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed in an ambush in Tadmur (Palmyra), in central Homs province, in mid-December. Three other American troops and two members of Syria’s security forces were wounded, according to the Pentagon and Syrian state media.
Following the attack, US President Donald Trump accused ISIS of carrying out the attack “against the US and Syria,” vowing a “very serious retaliation.”
On Saturday, “U.S. and Jordanian forces struck over 70 ISIS targets across central Syria with over 100 precision munitions,” targeting hideouts, infrastructure, and weapons sites, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on X.
President Trump described the operation as a “massive strike” aimed at preventing ISIS from regrouping. “We hit them hard,” he said. “It was very successful and precise. We hit every site flawlessly and are restoring peace through strength all over the world.”
Although ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, the group continues to exploit instability following the fall of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Over the past six months, US and partner forces have conducted more than 80 operations in Syria to eliminate militants posing a direct threat to US and regional security, CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper confirmed in mid-December.
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