“They kill sheikhs and the elderly... We are afraid of them. Kidnappings happen. They extort money from locals. You must pay them money or you are forced to flee from here,” said Nasir Othman, a resident of Basira village.
“They are actively present in areas such as Hawaij, Shuhayl, Basira, and Izbe,” he added, referring to villages in eastern Deir ez-Zor province on the banks of the Euphrates River.
The Euphrates River valley is the dividing line between areas controlled by the SDF and that controlled by the regime in Deir ez-Zor province. It is in this area that ISIS militants are the most active. Nearly half of all ISIS attacks in Syria in the last three months of 2020 were in Deir ez-Zor province, according to the Pentagon.
“They [ISIS militants] infiltrate the region through the borders. They come via smuggling routes along the Euphrates River,” said Bashar al-Saab, general manager of SDF in Deir ez-Zor.
The SDF carries out regular operations against ISIS and have captured many sleeper cells, but the militants are “given assistance” by the local population, according to Saab. “There are many mercenaries from the region working for them.”
The SDF controls Deir ez-Zor territory north and east of the river, in coordination with the US-led global coalition. ISIS has been able to use tensions between the local Arab populations and the Kurdish-led SDF to gain a foothold, according to the Pentagon.
“ISIS continued its tactic of assassinating military and civilian leaders in SDF areas in an attempt to exacerbate tensions between the Arab population and the Kurdish-led SDF authorities,” the Pentagon stated in a report released in February. “ISIS was able to operate clandestinely in SDF territory by exploiting ethnic tensions and intimidating the local population.”
The ISIS threat is a constant presence, Brig. Laila al-Abdullah, an SDF commander, said on Tuesday after a ceremony in Deir ez-Zor to mark the second anniversary of the defeat of ISIS in Syria. “ISIS sleeper cells launch attacks on a daily basis. They kill those people who work for the authorities and they target SDF leaders," she said.
ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. The Pentagon estimates there are 8,000 to 16,000 of the group’s fighters remaining in Iraq and Syria.
