US-backed SDF arrest three suspected ISIS members in northeast Syria

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – In a joint operation with the US-led coalition against ISIS, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Thursday arrested three of the terrorist group's "weapons facilitators" in Hasakah province.

“Our SDF partners continue to dismantle Daesh (Arabic acronym for ISIS) remnants with the capture of 3 weapons facilitators. With Coalition support, we remain committed to prevent a Daesh resurgence in NE Syria,” the official account of the US-led coalition against ISIS said.

The US Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant (SOJTF LEVANT), which oversees activities in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, said in a Friday tweet that the SDF carried out the operation in Markada, Hasakah province.

Even though ISIS lost the entirety of its self-styled caliphate two years ago, the group still has networks of sleeper cells across northeast Syria that continue to threaten the security of that region.

Most of these attacks are in Arab-majority Deir al-Zor. In contrast, relatively few ISIS attacks were carried out in Hasakah province.

On Wednesday, the SDF also arrested an alleged ISIS financier in the eastern Deir al-Zor province.

Read More: SDF arrests alleged ISIS financier in Deir al-Zor

On Nov. 24, the Rojava Information Centre said that the Asayish announced the arrest of an ISIS sleeper cell made up of 14 members in the notorious al-Hol Camp, suspected of carrying out various attacks.

Last week, four people were killed in the sprawling facility, which hosts thousands of foreign, Iraqi, and Syrian ISIS families.