Jihan Sheikh Ahmed is in the center
On October 2, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesperson Jihan Sheikh Ahmed said in an official statement that the last ISIS attack east of Raqqa city reveled many new information about ISIS including many sleeper cells and hidden weapons caches in the SDF-held areas.
In the statement, Jihan repeated the previous SDF claims that ISIS fighters came from areas controlled by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on the western bank of the Euphrates river.
“The number of attackers was close to 100. They infiltrated from areas controlled by the Syrian regime’s army and militias on the other side of the Euphrates River,” Said Jihan.
Jishan also said that the attack revealed how ISIS fighters plan their attacks, how they communicate with their sleeper cells and who provided information for ISIS, and helped ISIS fighters to move into the SDF-held areas.
According to Jihan, the SDF used this information and raided a weapon cache of ISIS in al-Jazarat area west of Raqqa city and killed a cell of ISIS fighters there.
Moreover, Jihan argued that the aim of the attack was to open a route for ISIS fighters who are besieged inside Raqqa city to withdraw towards the ISIS-held areas. The alleged ISIS plan was to capture al-Mushalib district in the eastern part of Raqqa city and Raqqa Samara village east of the city and to link the two areas together to open the route.
27 SDF fighters were killed while repelling ISIS attack in eastern Raqqa, while all ISIS fighters were killed or captured during the attack according to Jihan.
The SDF didn’t support its claims regarding the SAA aiding ISIS in the attack with any evidence so far. The claims are likely an attempt to promote an idea that the SAA and ISIS are working together against the SDF. This attempt reflects the growing tensions between the SDF and SAA.
