Eurasia Press & News
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for targeting an Internal Security Command headquarters in the city of Raqqa (northern Syria).
The group said on Tuesday, June 16, that two of its members attacked the Internal Security command headquarters west of Raqqa on Monday.
According to the group, the operation left at least four people dead and two others injured.
The group described the operation as a “bold attack on a heavily fortified security square that includes central security headquarters of the US-directed Syrian regime,” according to its wording.
It added that the two fighters reached the main gate of the fortified headquarters, entered it, and clashed with its personnel at close range.
Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Raqqa reported on Monday that an attack targeted the Internal Security command headquarters in the al-Intifada area west of the city.
The correspondent said the sound of an explosion was heard near the headquarters, followed by clashes in the area that includes the Internal Security command center.
The Ministry of Interior said security personnel confronted two suicide attackers in Raqqa, clashed with them, and managed to neutralize one of them, while the other detonated himself with an explosive vest after being surrounded.
The explosion killed one Internal Security member and injured three others, who were transferred to hospitals for treatment.
The Islamic State group announces, from time to time, its responsibility for attacks targeting Syrian security headquarters and personnel.
The group adopts a hostile approach toward the Syrian government through its operations on the ground and media rhetoric criticizing Damascus’s policies, accusing it of being an agent of the West and moving away from the Islamic path.
Interior Ministry Operations Against the Group
The Syrian Ministry of Interior announced the arrest of 235 members of the Islamic State group over three months.
The ministry said, on June 8, that its operations represented the outcome of Syrian General Intelligence efforts to pursue the group’s cells.
As part of the operations carried out, the Ministry of Interior said the Counterterrorism Department had succeeded in dismantling seven cells and thwarting seven operations.
According to the monthly breakdown, arrests included 80 members in March, 99 in April, and 56 in May, including 71 in Deir Ezzor and 35 in Aleppo.
The ministry did not provide details on the locations of the other arrests, noting that the detainees’ nationalities included 198 Syrians and 37 foreigners.
According to the Interior Ministry, the dismantled cells were distributed across two operations in Damascus, two in Deir Ezzor, and one operation each in Aleppo, Hama, and Homs.
The Ministry of Interior said it seized, during its operations against the Islamic State group, 25 weapons, six vehicles, 22 devices prepared for detonation, and 67 electronic devices.
Decline in the Group’s Operations
A report by the Middle East Institute, issued on June 9, said Islamic State operations in Syria had declined during the past period.
The institute noted that the number of the group’s attacks declined by 17% during the months that followed the Syrian Democratic Forces’ military losses to Syrian government forces, from January to April 2026, then declined further to 67% after the departure of US forces, during the period from April to June 2026.
The institute explained that the group carried out only eight attacks across Syria in May, killing four people. This was below the group’s 2025 monthly average of 29 attacks and 15 deaths, and represented the sharpest decline in attacks and fatalities since the group emerged in Syria in 2013.
It stated that 90% of attacks in 2025 occurred in areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, through the exploitation of growing anger among Arab tribes toward SDF-affiliated authorities, according to the Middle East Institute.
