ISIS in August 2024 | 18 attacks SDF-controlled areas, all in Deir Ezzor, and nine other attacks in Syrian desert leave 21 combatants dead
Although the Counter-ISIS International Coalition command and the leaders of Syria Democratic Forces announced the elimination of the so-called Caliphate of the “Islamic State” in March 2019, recent developments on the ground indicate that ISIS has not been fully eliminated. ISIS continues launching military operations and counter-attacks which are met with security campaigns by Coalition forces and their Syria Democratic Forces partner throughout SDF-controlled areas, in addition to military operations by Russian and regime forces against ISIS cells in areas under their control. However, ISIS cells are still able to exploit opportunities to create a security vacuum and carry out assassinations, which clearly indicates that the “Islamic State” is still alive and kicking.
In the 121st month after the declaration of “Al-Baghdadi’s Caliphate,” ISIS carried out 18 operations, including armed attacks and explosions, in areas controlled by SDF, all in Deir Ezzor province. Those operations left five fatalities: two civilians, two members of military formations operating in SDF-controlled areas and one ISIS member.
Meanwhile, SOHR activists documented the participation of the International Coalition in six joint security operations with SDF, namely raids and airdrops, arresting ten ISIS members and commanders.
The joint security operation also left three ISIS members dead, where SOHR sources reported on August 10 that special security units of SDF, with the support of the “International Coalition” aircraft, carried out a raid in Sweidan Jazirah town in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. The operation resulted in the killing of two people accused of belonging to “ISIS” cells and the arrest of another, after the two parties exchanged fire during the resistance of the wanted persons to the patrol members, and they were taken to a security centre.
While on August 23, members of a military patrol of Syrian Democratic Forces, in cooperation by International Coalition Forces, carried out a security operation in the early hours of Friday morning, targeting a house in Al-Busayrah town in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. The operation left a man accused of “belonging to ISIS, dead.
In the Syrian desert, however, ISIS continued its operations, including ambushes, armed attacks and explosions, in areas under the control of the Syrian regime and its allies, especially in Al-Rasafah desert, the surrounding areas of Jabal Al-Bishri in Al-Raqqah, the frontlines of Ithriyah, Al-Rahjan and other frontlines in the eastern countryside of Hama, the desert of Al-Sukhnah, Palmyra in Homs countryside, Deir Ezzor desert and the administrative border between Al-Raqqah and Deir Ezzor.
According to SOHR sources, ISIS carried out nine attacks in the Syrian desert in the past month, killing 21 members of regime forces and their proxy militias.
Here is a regional distribution of those attacks:
- Deir Ezzor desert: Four operations left seven combatants, including two Iranian-backed militias, dead.
- Homs desert: Four operations left 14 combatants dead.
- Al-Raqqah desert: Four operations left no fatalities.
Separately, ISIS lost one member in an incident of security disorder in Daraa province.
On August 25, the General Security Services of HTS carried out a security operation in Termanin town in northern Idlib countryside, targeting a cell belonging to ISIS following monitoring of their movements in the town and setting up an ambush for them.
Armed clashes erupted between members of the General Security Service and members of the cell, after they had refused to hand themselves over to the General Security Service. The clashes left a member of the cell called “Abdul Qader” and a member of the General Security Service dead and another member of the cell injured, before he was arrested.
Islamic State’s abductees: ignored and unaccounted
Although nearly 65 months have passed since the International Coalition’s announcement of the defeat of ISIS which was a dominant force east of Euphrates River, and with the recent developments over the past period, however, silence still surrounds the issue of ISIS’s abductees. All sides remain quiet and provide no clarification on the fate of thousands of abductees, where fear continues to grow for the lives and fate of the abductees, including Father Paolo Daololio, Bishops John Ibrahim and Paul Yazji, Abdullah Al Khalil, a British journalist, sky News journalist and other journalists, in addition to hundreds of abductees from Ain Al Arab (Kobani) area and Afrin, as well as the people of Deir Ezzor.
With the continuing crimes and violations against Syrian civilians, including death threats against SOHR workers by the Islamic State and other killers and criminals in Syria, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights renews its vows to continue its work by monitoring, documenting and publishing all violations and crimes that committed against the Syrian people.
We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, renew our call to the UN Security Council to refer those war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria to the International Criminal Court so that all the criminals and killers of the Syrian people are brought to justice.
SOHR has been all along warning against ISIS resurgence and stressing that the defeat of ISIS in Syrian territory, as declared in 2019, was “symbolic”, as ISIS has been only eliminated as a controlling power in populated areas. The daily attacks by ISIS fighters and cells throughout Syria, clearly indicate that the “Islamic State” is still alive and kicking. While the frequent security campaigns and military operations by regime forces, Russia, International Coalition, and SDF have all failed so far to curb or hinder ISIS’s escalating activities.
The Syrian Observatory also points out that it had already warned, well before “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” declared itself as a “Caliphate State” in Syria and Iraq, that this organization did intend to work for the Syrian people and serve their interest, but rather ISIS continued to kill innocent Syrians, who had been suffering the brutality of war and violence and became displaced.
Furthermore, the “Islamic State” recruited children in the so-called “cubs of the caliphate”, controlled the wealth and resources of the Syrian people and harnessed them to build a “caliphate”, and traded openly back and forth with one of Syria’s neighbouring countries.