Click to see full-size image. Source: the Hawar News Agency.
On March 17, the United States-led coalition announced that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured and detained three operatives of ISIS during recent operations in the northern Syrian governorate of Raqqa.
In a statement, the Combined Special Ops Joint Task Force-Levant said that the SDF was “assessed, advised and enabled” by the coalition during the operations, which took place on March 10.
The detained individuals were identified by the coalition as Hussein Khalil al-Hussein, a known ISIS operative, Addul Jabbar Emad Mukhlif, an ISIS cell leader, and Khalib Thamr Mohammad al-Rawi, a known ISIS aid facilitator.
“The SDF’s ability to plan and execute complex operations in the Raqqah region is integral to our shared goals in the enduring defeat of ISIS,” said U.S. Air Force Brigade General Claude Tudor, Combined Special Operations Joint Task Force – Levant Commander.
The coalition didn’t clarify in its statement if any SDF fighters or civilians were killed or wounded in the course of the operations in Raqqa.
The announcement came just two days after the commander of the SDF’s Anti-Terror Unit, known as the YAT, was killed in a mysterious helicopter crash in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. YAT fighters usually spearhead coalition-backed operations against ISIS operatives.
The coalition and the SDF stepped up counter-terrorism operations in northern and eastern Syria in recent months in what appears to be an attempt to justify U.S. military presence in the country.
