Click to see full-size image. Source: the Hawar News Agency.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have arrested more than 100 suspected members of ISIS in the first week of Operation Al-Jazeera Thunderbolt in the northeastern Syrian governorate of al-Hasakah.
The Kurdish-led group launched the large-scale operation on December 29, with support from the United States-led coalition, to secure the al-Hawl camp, the town of Tel Hamees and several other parts of al-Hasakah countryside from ISIS cells.
Tens of thousands of ISIS members and their relatives, including foreigners, are held by the SDF at the al-Hawl camp, which is located in the eastern countryside of al-Hasakah.
According to the SDF’s recent statements on the operation, a total of 147 suspected terrorists have been arrested, so far. Dozens of towns and villages were also combed.
On January 5, the group released footage showing its fighters raiding hideouts of ISIS cells, arresting suspects and seizing quantities of weapons and ammunition in al-Hasakah countryside in the framework of the operation.
ISIS cells in al-Hasakah pose a real threat. Nevertheless, Operation al-Jazeera Thunderbolt was likely launched for political reasons, mainly to promote the SDF’s role in the war on ISIS and to justify the presence of the U.S.-led coalition in northeastern Syria for another year.
It’s worth noting that the operation came following threats from Turkey, who escalated its air and artillery strikes on SDF-held areas in northeastern Syria in November and December after accusing the group’s core faction, the People’s Protection Units, of staging a bombing in Istanbul that killed six people and wounded more than 80 others.
