Click to see full-size image. Source: the Hawar News Agency.
On March 2, the United States-led coalition announced that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured a financial operative of ISIS during a recent operation in the northeastern Syria governorate of al-Hasakah.
In a statement, the coalition said that the unidentified operative was involved in providing “financial and lethal aid” for ISIS operations within the Middle Euphrates River Valley.
SDF commandos and military intelligence units spearheaded the operation, which was carried out on February 17 with support from the coalition.
“This successful operation demonstrates the SDF’s ability to execute unilateral, complex operations and their persistent commitment to the region in the enduring defeat of ISIS,” said U.S. Air Force Brigade General Claude Tudor, Combined Special Operations Joint Task Force – Levant commander. “The capture of this operative disrupts ISIS’s ability to further plot and carry out attacks that threaten our partners and innocent civilians in the region.”
The U.S.-led coalition and the SDF stepped up operations against ISIS cells in northeastern Syria in recent weeks. On February 16, Hamza al-Homsi, a senior leader of ISIS, died during a joint operation in the governorate of Deir Ezzor. The terrorist triggered an explosion after being cornered at his hideout, killing himself and wounding four U.S. service members. In a separate operation that took place on the same day, the leader of one of the terrorist group’s assassination cells was killed.
Later on February 18, an official of ISIS, who was identified only by his nom de guerre Batar, was captured in another operation.
With the start of the year, the U.S.-led coalition began to release details of its counter-terrorism operations in Syria in what appears to be an attempt to justify its presence in the war-torn country for the long-term.
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