US-backed, Kurdish-led forces arrest ISIS sleeper cell in Syria

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured eight known Islamic State fighters during a large operation in Syria’s northeastern Deir al-Zor province on Jan. 31, the US-led coalition said in a press statement on Wednesday.

The operation aimed to isolate an Islamic State sleeper cell, capture its members, and ultimately reduce terrorist attacks across the region.

“The SDF recruits troops from the Middle Euphrates River Valley and other areas threatened by ISIS remnants,” Col. Myles Caggins told Kurdistan 24. Caggins serves as the spokesperson for the US-led Coalition, formally known as Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Resolve (CJTF-OIR).

“The success of this raid against an ISIS sleeper cell demonstrates the resolve of SDF and Coalition leaders to never allow ISIS to resurge—together we will keep pressure on vile Daesh terrorists.” 

US Air Force Maj. Gen. Eric T. Hill, the commanding general for coalition special operations, said in a public statement that the SDF continues “to conduct intelligence-driven operations, removing ISIS fighters from the region and denying them safe haven.”

“Our enduring partnership is keeping pressure on ISIS networks in order to maintain peace and stability for over 3 million people living in northeast Syria,” he added. 

According to the press release, coalition forces accompanied hundreds of SDF commandos who raided several compounds.

“The defeat ISIS mission in Syria has proceeded uninterrupted in recent weeks,” said Hill. “Coalition Forces and the SDF continue to cooperate in our mutual efforts to eliminate extremist networks from northeast Syria.”

Despite the SDF and the US-led coalition announcing the defeat of the extremist group’s so-called caliphate in March 2019, Islamic State continues to stage attacks in areas now liberated from its brutal rule.   

Moreover, after a Turkish military incursion in early October into areas in northern Syria under SDF control, the Kurdish forces “temporarily paused” operations against the Islamic State to enable its fighters to confront Ankara’s cross-border invasion.

After US President Donald Trump’s decision in late October to leave between 500 to 600 American troops in Syria to protect oilfields, the SDF continued counter-Islamic State operations, including those targeting the terror group’s smuggling networks.

Since then, the coalition and the SDF have conducted an increasing number of joint operations each week in northeastern Syria to prevent the extremist group’s militants from regaining a foothold in the provinces of Deir al-Zor and Hasakah.

US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees the fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, assesses that Islamic State sleeper cell activity has continued, including recent incidents that have led to the deaths of civilians.

For example, sleeper cells carried out operations in Raqqah, Hasakah, and Deir al-Zor provinces as they did before the US departure from the border and the Turkish invasion, according to a report from the Defense Department’s inspector general published Tuesday.

CENTCOM has also said that the Islamic State continues to claim numerous attacks in Deir al-Zor in which it has demonstrated its capability to conduct ambushes, assassinations, and IED attacks “similar in size, frequency, and complexity to those ISIS has carried out since it lost its last controlled territory in March 2019.”

Editing by John J. Catherine