The special forces linked with the US-backed SDF detained the ISIS suspects in the Deir al-Zor countryside, where the terrorist group is most active in northeast Syria.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Monday that affiliated fighters arrested 22 suspects with alleged links to ISIS in the Deir al-Zor countryside, with support from the US-led coalition.
The SDF’s Coordination and Military Operations Center, in a tweet, said that the Asayish special forces “have broken the back of an ISIS cell,” in a “huge step in the mission” to defeat ISIS.
Although the SDF and the coalition announced the territorial defeat of ISIS in Syria in March 2019, sleeper cell attacks continue in northeastern Syria.
Most of ISIS’s activities occur in the Deir al-Zor province, plagued by assassinations, tribal tensions, and terrorist activities.
On Oct. 14, the coalition confirmed that the SDF carried out a successful anti-ISIS operation that resulted in the arrest of an ISIS financier in the notorious al-Hol camp. Two days earlier, the coalition reported that four ISIS suspects were arrested in Deir al-Zor province.
The SDF said on Sept. 26 that ISIS launched 20 attacks in August, killing 15 civilians and security personnel. In the notorious al-Hol camp in Hasakah province alone, ISIS-affiliated assailants killed 11 people and wounded four others in August.
Over the same period, 83 ISIS suspects were arrested with the support of the coalition.