Syrian Internal Security Forces arrest a “Daesh[Islamic State]-linked person in [the] Dummar neighborhood” of Damascus on December 17. (Syrian Arab News Agency on X)
On December 17, US Central Command (CENTCOM) provided new information on operations against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria. “US and partner forces in Syria have conducted nearly 80 operations since July to eliminate terrorist operatives, including ISIS [Islamic State] remnants, that posed a direct threat to the United States and interests abroad,” the statement, posted on X, said.
The details were published in the wake of the killing of two US soldiers and an interpreter on December 13 in Syria by a member of the Syrian security forces, an attack Syrian authorities and the US have blamed on the Islamic State. In the days after the attack, there have been a number of operations against the jihadist group and other armed groups in Syria and Iraq.
US Central Command noted in its December 17 post that “ISIS has inspired at least 11 plots or attacks against targets in the United States over the past year.” The US has played a role in operations that have detained 119 terrorists and killed 14 terrorists over the last six months. In Syria, the US has partnered with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the eastern part of the country over the past decade during the war against the Islamic State.
“We are steadfast in our relentless pursuit of terrorists who seek to harm Americans and our interests abroad,” Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of CENTCOM, said. The statement noted that US personnel have also worked with the Syrian Ministry of Interior to raid 15 Islamic State sites as part of a new partnership with the Syrian government. “The combined operation destroyed over 130 mortars and rockets, multiple rifles, machine guns, anti-tank mines, and materials for building improvised explosive devices,” CENTCOM’s statement noted. “We will continue to work closely with our Syrian partners to hunt down ISIS networks and prevent their resurgence,” Cooper said.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on December 17 that Syrian Internal Security Forces had arrested a person linked to the Islamic State. The arrest happened “during a security operation targeting one of the group’s hideouts in the Dummar neighborhood of Damascus,” the report added.
“Our security units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate, carried out a precise operation targeting a hideout belonging to the ISIS terrorist organization in [the] Dummar neighborhood of Damascus, based on reliable intelligence information and accurate field data,” Syrian Brigadier General Osama Mohammad Khair Atkeh told SANA. The Syrian security forces found explosive devices, weapons, drones, and other items during the raid.
Despite being greatly diminished in the region, the Islamic State continues to pose a threat in Syria and Iraq. “Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) announced on Wednesday the arrest of six suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members and the destruction of several militant hideouts during coordinated security operations across the country,” the Kurdish Rudaw Media Network reported on December 17. The suspects were detained across a swath of Iraq, in Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Baghdad. The report added that the Iraqi CTS had cooperated with the “Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani-based Asayish Directorate of Operations and the Commando Forces.”
Iraqi security forces also carried out a rare airborne raid into Syria in cooperation with the Syrian security forces, Iraq’s government Security Media Cell, which provides details on security operations, said on December 18. The force also coordinated with the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State. “The raid took place in a village in Syria’s northeastern Hasaka province, near the Iraqi border. Iraqi authorities have not disclosed the nationality of the detainees or the charges filed against them,” Rudaw noted.
According to North Press Agency, a US raid on December 18 targeted an Islamic State operative near Raqqa. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claimed that “members of an ISIS cell and International Coalition Forces traded heavy gunfire during a raid on the house of one of the suspects” during the incident. SOHR described the Raqqa raid as “the second operation of its kind in less than 24 hours,” linking this increased tempo of operations with the Iraqi cross-border operation in northeastern Hasaka. The sites of the two reported operations are approximately 150 miles apart.