SDF arrests ISIS facilitator in Raqqa

The SDF and the Coalition forces conducted “operations in Ar Raqqah Province resulting in the detention of a key Daesh (ISIS) facilitator”

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested an alleged ISIS facilitator in Raqqa in a joint operation with the US-led coalition on Tuesday.

Today @cmoc_SDF and Coalition forces conducted operations in Ar Raqqah Province resulting in the detention of a key Daesh facilitator. This is part of continued efforts to protect the Syrian people and Coalition partners by deterring the reconstitution of Daesh #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/4DLGoKKcI7
— Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant (@SOJTF_LEVANT) November 30, 2021

The SDF and the Coalition forces conducted “operations in Ar Raqqah Province resulting in the detention of a key Daesh (ISIS) facilitator”, the US Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant (SOJTF LEVANT) tweeted.

SOJTF LEVANT, which oversees activities in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, also announced in a Friday tweet that the SDF carried out the operation in Markada, Hasakah province.

“This is part of continued efforts to protect the Syrian people and Coalition partners by deterring the reconstitution of Daesh (Arabic acronym for ISIS),” the official account said.

Raqqa was liberated from ISIS in October 2017 by the SDF with support from the US-led coalition. The entirety of ISIS’s self-styled caliphate was destroyed following the SDF’s capture of the eastern town of Baghouz in March 2019. However, the group still launches regular sleeper cell attacks in SDF-controlled parts of Syria, especially the Arab-majority eastern province of Deir al-Zor.

Despite the SDF and the US-led coalition announcing the defeat of the extremist group’s so-called caliphate on March 23, 2019, ISIS sleeper cell attacks continue in areas that were liberated from the militants.

However, ISIS sleeper cell activity are relatively rare in Raqqa compared to Deir al-Zor.

Earlier in October, SDF forces prevented a massive bombing in Raqqa city, formerly the capital of ISIS’s self-styled caliphate.