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ISIS stepped up its attacks in areas controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern and eastern Syria over the past month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on July 31.
The London-based monitoring group documented 22 attacks by cells linked to the terrorist group in SDF-controlled areas in the past 31 days.
The vast majority of the attacks, precisely 19, took place in the governorate of Deir Ezzor, where six people, including a civilian, were killed and 13 others were wounded. Two more attacks took place in the governorate of Raqqa with two SDF fighters getting killed.
The deadliest attack by the group was, however, in the governorate of al-Hasakah, where five fighters of the SDF were killed.
ISIS laid down for a while following the fall of the regime of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last December, with reports at the time suggesting that the terrorist group was reorganizing its ranks.
The group resurfaced in recent months. However, aside from a single attack in the southern governorate of al-Suwayda last May, it has not announced any attacks against the country’s new Islamist-led interim government. Meanwhile, as evident by SOHR’s recent report, the group is escalating its attacks against the SDF.
Despite criticizing Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, ISIS likely still sees the government as a lesser evil than the secular SDF.
It’s worth noting here that Sharaa himself was a lieutenant of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. When the war first broke out, al-Baghdadi sent al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohamad al-Julani, to Syria to found the Nusra Front.
As the group evolved, it broke ties with ISIS and later al-Qaeda, eventually rebranding as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. The group led the final offensive that brought down the Assad regime. It then went on to dissolve itself after installing the current government.
With support from the United States-led coalition, the SDF is already making more efforts to counter ISIS cells in northern and eastern Syria.
Just last week a senior commander of the terrorist group was killed in a coalition helicopter raid that was reportedly carried out in partnership with the SDF. Notably, the commander was hiding in the city of al-Bab in the northern governorate of Aleppo, which is controlled by the government.
While there is no evidence supporting any relationship between the government and the cells operating the SDF, this remains a possibility.
The government recently voiced its frustration with the SDF, which was accused of refusing to implement an agreement signed last March that is meant to merge its forces into the new military. This explains why the government would want to destabilize SDF-controlled areas by any means possible.
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