Kurdish-led SDF arrests ISIS financier in Syria’s Hasakah: Coalition

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Military units linked to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured an ISIS financier in the village of Dashisha, located in northeastern Hasakah province, claimed the anti-ISIS coalition-linked US Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant (SOJTF LEVANT) on Wednesday.

A public statement explained that SDF Anti Terror Forces (HAT) linked to its Internal Security Forces (Asayesh) and General Security Forces arrested the ISIS financier during an operation last night.

InSF HAT & General Security forces conducted an operation that captured a #Daesh financier in Dashisha Village, Syria, last night. Electronics & ammunition were also confiscated. This capture disrupts the financial structure & abilities of Daesh to plan attacks against #NESyria.

— Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant (@SOJTF_LEVANT) December 29, 2021

“Electronics and ammunition were also confiscated. This capture disrupts the financial structure and abilities of Daesh (Arabic acronym for ISIS) to plan attacks against #NESyria (Northeast Syria),” the SOJTF LEVANT wrote in a tweet.

While ISIS lost the entirety of its former self-styled caliphate back in 2019, the group still operates networks of sleeper cells across northeast Syria, especially in Deir al-Zor province in areas along the Iraqi border.

The US-led coalition continues to support anti-ISIS operations by the SDF as part of joint efforts to deny ISIS militants and leaders the ability to operate in Syria.

Farhad Shami, the head of the SDF’s media center, announced last week that the group had arrested one of the most "dangerous" ISIS leaders involved in the attacks on the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani in 2014.

The ISIS official was named in a statement as Mohammed Abid al-Awad, nicknamed Rasheed, and has been accused of leading an attempt to organize a prison break in an SDF detention facility in Hasakah that holds ISIS prisoners. 

Read More: Kurdish-led forces foil jailbreak attempt at ISIS prison in Syria's Hasakah

There have been several attempted prison breaks in the last two years from inside ISIS detention facilities in Hasakah. But so far, no prisoners have escaped.

The ISIS leader arrested last week was also said to have organized the smuggling of weapons and ammunition and had a hand in planning suicide and car bombings that were ultimately detected and prevented by a joint SDF-coalition operation in early November.