Syrian Kurdish-led forces have captured a local Islamic State group commander in eastern Syria as part of an ongoing operation against sleeper cells in the city of Raqqa, US-backed forces announced Thursday.
The commander served as the head of the extremist group’s faction in Raqqa and was among 68 militants detained in the operation, the Syrian Democratic Forces said.
The operation began earlier this week, in response to an IS attack in December that targeted military and security buildings in Raqqa, killing at least six Syrian Kurdish fighters. A Kurdish commander, Mazloum Abdi, said they had indications of “serious preparations” by Islamic State for the attacks.
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition war monitor, said Islamic State militants also attacked a military intelligence prison housing about 200 militants in the December attack.
Turkish-backed Syrian fighters are shown occupying positions on December 2, 2022. Syrian Kurdish-led forces captured a militant who served as head of the Islamic State group in Ragga.
(BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images)
IS lost all territorial control in Iraq and Syria in 2019, following a years-long US-backed campaign that defeated the so-called caliphate, where Raqqa was once IS’s de facto capital. However, the militant sleeper cells persist and have since killed dozens of Iraqis and Syrians. US and Syrian Kurdish forces frequently carry out raids against IS sleeper cells in northern and eastern Syria.
The captured IS commander was identified as Atallah al-Maythan. Syrian Kurdish forces said he spearheaded the militant group’s operations in Raqqa province and allegedly “confessed to involvement in planning and directing terrorist acts,” extorted money from residents in the area and kept state sleeper cells in contact. Islamic.
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Some 5,000 Syrian Kurdish-led fighters are involved in the operation and have already raided some 80 locations, their spokesman, Farhad Shami, told The Associated Press. The US-led coalition was providing air support, reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, Shami added.
This is the second recent operation by US-backed forces in Syria. In late December, Syrian Kurdish-led fighters attacked Islamic State cells in al-Hol and Tal Hamis, following a surge in militant attacks.
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The US Central Command said 215 Islamic State militants were arrested last year and 466 were killed in Syria. There are approximately 900 US troops in Syria.
