Click to see the full-size image
In its first statement since the fall of the Assad regime, ISIS threatened the Syrian transitional government and accused it of serving foreign interests.
ISIS said in the statement, which was released on January 26, that “those who brought down Bashar al-Assad are nothing more than pawns in a geopolitical chess game.” The terrorist group also warned the new government, which is led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) against adhering to international laws and agreements, claiming such compliance would serve only external powers.
ISIS accused the armed factions involved in Assad’s downfall of waging a proxy war on behalf of regional and international actors.
“Their goal is to secure political gains at the negotiating table, perpetuating a cycle of conflict,” the terrorist group alleged.
The terrorist group also condemned those advocating for a civil state in Syria, labeling them as “new oppressors.”
The statement also attacked the Syrian revolution, describing it as “pre-Islamic” because it seeks to establish a democratic civil state, and said that it is “a revolution of liberation from an oppressive regime that monopolizes power in order to reach another democratic regime that shares power.”
On January 25, the Washington Post revealed in a report that the United States has begun sharing classified intelligence with Syria’s new government.
According to the newspaper, U.S. intelligence recently helped thwart a planned ISIS attack on a prominent Shiite shrine near the capital, Damascus.
And on January 27, local fighters in Daraa apprehended Suhaib al-Hariri, also known as Atta Allah al-Shami, a senior ISIS leader, during an ambush along the road between the cities of Sanamayn and Kafr Shams in the eastern countryside of the governorate.
Atta Allah al-Shami
It is unclear however if the fighters were affiliated with HTS or if they had received any intelligence from the U.S.
In the wake of the fall of the Assad regime, several reports revealed that ISIS was reorganizing its ranks in central Syria after recruiting more fighters and capturing loads of weapons from the abandoned bases of the now dissolved Syrian Arab Army.
Now, the terrorist group poses a serious threat not only to HTS, but also to Syria as a state. While HTS was successful against the terrorist group in its former stronghold of Greater Idlib, combating its threat in all of Syria won’t be an easy task.
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
