SDF arrests suspected Iraqi ISIS member in Raqqa
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested Iraqi ISIS suspects in the former ISIS capital Raqqa, the SDF announced on Wednesday.
“According to the terrorist’s confessions, he got injured when his car hit a landmine on Assaria-Khanaser road in the Badia (desert) of Raqqa,” read a statement from the SDF press center. “He used to move between the Wadi al-Miah, Damascus, al-Sokhna desert, Palmyra desert, and Aleppo countryside.”
According to the SDF, Abdullah Abdul Karim Abdullah joined ISIS in 2017 and underwent military training.
He was active in Salah al-Din and Syria. The SDF claimed that he planned to travel to Urfa or Gaziantep in Turkey, “where there are designated motels in Turkey for treating the Daesh (ISIS) elements.”
Despite the SDF and the US-led coalition announcing the defeat of the extremist group’s so-called caliphate on Mar. 23, 2019, ISIS sleeper cell attacks continue in the liberated areas.
On Feb. 13, the SDF announced the arrest of an alleged ISIS financier named Muhammed Ahmad Karaz.
“Karz was responsible for funding and financing the Daesh terrorist cells in northern and eastern Syria and their families in the al-Hol camp,” the SDF press center said at the time.
Read More: SDF detains suspected ISIS financier in Raqqa
According to the latest yearly report by the Syria-based Rojava Information Center (RIC), the majority of ISIS activity in 2021 was in the Arab-majority regions of northeast Syria.
“This was especially true in Deir ez-Zor (Deir al-Zor), where ISIS continued to intermittently exercise power over civilians by imposing taxes, setting up moving checkpoints, and trying to impose Sharia law on an ad hoc basis,” it said.
Moreover, the RIC said in another report that in January, ISIS carried out 38 attacks, including the nine-day-long battle for the Hasakah prison on Jan. 20.
Read More: US-led coalition says SDF cleared Hasakah prison from enemy fighters
“The attacks resulted in 128 civilian and SDF deaths, primarily military personnel during the Heseke (Hasakah) battle,” the report said.
Four people were also killed in the notorious al-Hol camp.