SDF arrests 3 members of ISIS cell in southern Hasakah

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with support from the US-led Coalition, arrested three members of the so-called Islamic State in the south of Hasakah, the SDF stated on Sunday.

The SDF's Coordination and Military Operations Centre on Sunday announced on Twitter that they carried out a new operation against the terrorist organization in Hasakah province, part of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). The team arrested three members of an Islamic State cell that was operating south of Hasakah city, with air support from the international Coalition.

Two days earlier, the SDF also launched the second stage of the ongoing "Deterrent of Terrorism" campaign in Deir al-Zor province.

"The campaign that targeted the hideouts of terrorists and suspects carried out a series of attacks and arrests in the towns of Busaysrah and Shuhail in the northern countryside of Deir [al-Zor], where several suspects were arrested, and weapons and ammunition were confiscated," the SDF media center said on Friday.

Col. Myles B. Caggins III, Spokesman for the US-led Coalition, formally known as Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Resolve (CJTF-OIR), reiterated in a Twitter post on Saturday that "ISIS cannot hide in Deir [al-Zor]. SDF catches Daesh."

In early June, the SDF launched the first phase of Deterrence of Terrorism operation in southern Hasakah and Deir al-Zor to stop ongoing Islamic State activity in this region. The efforts also included capturing militants taxing residents and conducting assassination attempts against locals working with the SDF or the AANES.

The campaign lasted one week.

Despite Islamic State's territorial defeat on March 23, 2019, in Syria at the hands of SDF and the US-led Coalition, the terror group's attacks persist in areas the Kurdish-led forces had liberated. Islamic State cells are especially active in Deir al-Zor, where there are still some local networks that maintain links to Islamic State members. Furthermore, Syrian regime-affiliated armed groups and militias linked to Turkey are also active in the region.

Col. Myles B. Caggins III, Spokesman for the US-led Coalition, told Kurdistan 24 earlier that the SDF continues to apply pressure on Islamic State remnants in Hasakah, Deir al-Zor, and other areas of Syria.

"The Coalition is supporting those operations and we're continuing to have success. We have been successful in the past couple of months by going after leadership and smuggling networks of Daash [ISIS] in northeastern Syria."

He added that the Coalition supports the Deterrence of Terrorism campaign with "high-level advising, intelligence sharing, and occasionally partnered operations, where we may assist with air support, helicopter transportation, as well as over flights, drones and airstrikes."

"Our assessment of ISIS in Hasakah is that they're very weak, because they have weak leadership in Hasakah, and the people who live in Hasakah reject Daash. Nobody likes ISIS in Hasakah, and the low-level ISIS terrorists in Hasakah are not from the area."

Editing by Khrush Najari