Islamic State terrorist group carried out 42 attacks in Syria in May
ISIS carried out 42 sleeper cell attacks in May across northeast Syria, a slight increase compared to April numbers, according to the latest data from the Syria-based Rojava Information Center (RIC).
“Thirty of these attacks were claimed by ISIS,” the report said, adding that the assaults resulted in 13 deaths and 40 injuries. “The number of fatalities is significantly lower than previous months, only half as many as in April.”
In the notorious al-Hol camp, two attacks wounded an Iraqi worker and another Iraqi resident at the sprawling facility. Fiver other people were killed and smuggling activities out of the camp “caused the death of a teenage girl,” the report said.
The number of targeted killings in the al-Hol camp in northeast Syria have fallen slightly following a sweeping security operation by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in late March.
“The [SDF] and Asayish security operation in March-April seems to have brought a lasting improvement of the security situation inside the camp. However, smuggling networks remain active, and hard to control,” the report added.
The Asayish and the SDF reportedly detained 77 suspected ISIS members during 13 raids in May.
“Additionally, a large-scale operation in Deir ez-Zor led to the arrest of 100 people,” most of whom have been released since, the RIC explained.
The SDF finished a 4-days combing operation in May in the northeastern countryside of Deir al-Zor with the support of the coalition in order to track smuggling routes.
Although the SDF and the coalition announced the territorial defeat of ISIS in Syria in March 2019, sleeper cell attacks persist, especially in liberated territories, in what appears to be a deliberate campaign to destabilize the area.
On May 4, a Pentagon Inspector General report covering the first quarter of 2021 (January 1–March 31, 2021) quoted the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), saying that ISIS continues to assassinate tribal and civic leaders and other influential figures in SDF operating areas in Hasakah and Deir al Zor provinces.
According to the RIC report, 29 out of 42 of the ISIS attacks were carried out in Deir al-Zor province. The other attacks happened in Raqqa, eight, and Hasakah, five. Fifteen of the incidents involved improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and 12 involved automatic weapons.
“In SDF-controlled areas, ISIS maintained a significant presence in rural farming communities and generally limited its attacks to hit-and-run ambushes, assassinations, and IEDs,” the report noted.
Half of the attacks reportedly targeted Asayish and SDF members, with the rest directed at civilians, especially those accused of working with the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East of Syria (AANES).
Local leader Sheikh Youssef Khalifa Abu Bilal was killed in al-Junaina village in the western Deir al-Zor countryside. Muayad Al-Rayyash, a member of the AANES Legislative Council was also killed by unknown gunmen in al-Jazra, a town west of Deir al-Zor, the report said.
“ISIS sleeper cell activity in western Deir Ezzor and around Raqqa increased over the Ramadan period,” open-source researcher Caki Akyuz told Kurdistan 24.
“ISIS still has the ability to ambush SDF in the eastern region” where the terrorist organization has struck a number of headquarters and ambushed oncoming patrols, Akyuz explained.
Source: Kurdistan 24
