ISIS carries out three attacks on SDF in Deir ez-Zor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Friday that Islamic State (ISIS) militants carried out three attacks on its forces in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province. One SDF member was killed and another was injured. 

“The terrorist organization ‘ISIS’ continues its desperate attempts to revive its crumbling organization by carrying out treacherous and cowardly terrorist operations against our forces,” the SDF said in a statement. 

An ISIS cell attacked a military vehicle belonging to the SDF in the town of al-Busayrah, killing one SDF fighter and injuring another.

“Our forces responded to the source of the attack, where the terrorist cell was fortified somewhere in the area. Clashes took place between the terrorist cell members and our forces, and they managed to flee from the area. Our forces began search and sweep operations in the area looking for the terrorists,” the SDF said.

Two other attacks targeted an SDF military checkpoint in Dhiban and SDF-affiliated Internal Security Forces (Asayish) between the towns of al-Shahil and al-Busayrah.

The SDF statement comes hours after the US army announced the killing of a senior ISIS leader and two of his sons on the other side of the country, in the northern province of Aleppo. 

ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate.” The SDF defeated the group in Syria in 2019 with the help of the US-led global coalition against ISIS.

Since its defeat, ISIS has been trying to regain strength, especially after a coalition of opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) toppled the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on December 8.

Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria (Rojava) have repeatedly warned of the growing threat posed by ISIS. In January, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said there is a “need to intensify efforts to continue the fight against ISIS if we don’t want to see it make a comeback.”

“The terrorist organization is exploiting the prevailing state of chaos in Syria to reorganize its ranks and resume its terrorist activity by launching operations against our forces and security forces, as well as civilians and service infrastructure. However, our forces continue their security and military operations on multiple fronts and will not allow the terrorist organization to implement its destructive and evil projects in our areas,” the SDF said on Friday. 

Farhad Shami, head of the SDF’s media centre, told Ronahi TV on Friday that they are in talks with Damascus to jointly fight ISIS.