Since ISIS’s defeat in Syria in 2019, the Washington-led international coalition has regularly carried out airstrikes against suspected members of the jihadist group.
US forces announced Tuesday, December 20, that they had arrested six members of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, including a commander, in three operations over the past 48 hours in eastern Syria.
Since ISIS’s defeat in Syria in 2019, the Washington-led international coalition has regularly carried out airstrikes against suspected members of the group.
Conducted 3 raids by helicopter
In a statement, the US Military Middle East Command (Centcom) said its forces “carried out three helicopter strikes in eastern Syria, resulting in the arrest of six ISIS members.” One of them is a leader of the jihadist group identified as al-Zoubaydi, which is “involved in planning and facilitating IS attacks in Syria.”
“The initial toll indicates there were no civilian casualties,” the statement added. “The capture of these ISIS members will disrupt the terrorist organization’s ability to continue planning and executing destabilizing attacks,” Centcom Commander Gen. Michael Kurilla said.
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According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), the raids were carried out in collaboration with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are dominated by Kurdish fighters. Two raids were carried out in Deir Ezzor province (east) and a third in Hassaké province (northeast) under the control of Kurdish forces.
Four of those arrested are active in arms trafficking for IS, according to OSDH, a UK-based group with an extensive network of sources in Syria. In northern Syria, the OSDH reported that a coalition drone on Tuesday morning attacked a house in central Al-Bab, a city in northern Aleppo governorate controlled by Syrian factions loyal to Turkey.
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Death of the IS leader in 2019
An IS leader on the Arabian Peninsula was injured, according to the OSDH, as were two civilians. Members of pro-Turkish groups set up a cordon around the destroyed house, an AFP photographer reported. A medical source from a hospital in the city told AFP that “a wounded man with a Yemeni accent was taken to hospital after the attack” before Turkish forces escorted him to an undisclosed location.
On October 27, 2019, the United States announced the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a US operation in northwestern Syria. In 2022, two more IS leaders were killed, one in February by US special forces in the northwest and the other in October by ex-rebels in southern Deraa province, supported by the regime.