SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdish security forces in northeast Syria have detained 28 members of Islamic State (ISIS) militant group in west of Deir ez-Zor this week, according to the group.
The SDF media center said the internal security forces launched a “massive security operation” against ISIS sleeper cells in Jazzrah Bo Hamid area on Sunday.
“The operation was launched on demands of people following an increase in attacks of ISIS and other parties, targeting Sheikhs and clans in the area as well as the staff of institutions and scientific centers,” it said in a statement on Monday.
The internal security forces searched more than 50 places, including tents for displaced persons, according to the statement.
The security forces detained 24 ISIS members, including three involved in the assassination of Moayyed Al-Rayash, member of legislative council of Deir ez-Zor, on Wednesday.
They also seized a large number of grenades, Kalashnikov rifles, sharp metal weapons, space communications devices, diagrams and papers for certain “terrorist operations”, the statement read.
Kurdish fighters have seized much of northern and eastern Syria from Islamic State with U.S.-led Coalition backing. They have since held thousands of militants in prisons, while their wives and children – numbering tens of thousands, many of them foreigners – are living in camps.
“We support our partners in their mission to protect the people living in NE Syria,” U.S.-led Coalition Spokesman Wayne Marotto said in a tweet.
