Kurds in Syria claim to have detained over 100 alleged Daesh members
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Sulaiman
- . January 8, 2023
- . Update: January 7, 2023 10:19 pm
In an eight-day campaign against Daesh extremists, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Friday that they had detained more than 100 “terrorists.”
After blocking a Daesh attempt to release fellow militants from prison in Raqqa, the extremist group’s former stronghold in Syria, Kurdish-led troops launched the sweep known as Operation Al-Jazeera Thunderbolt last week.
As NATO member Turkey continues to threaten to launch a new cross-border attack against the area under their control, the Syrian Kurds have been attempting to emphasise their worth as a partner to the West in its war against Daesh.
The SDF released a statement in which it claimed that “during the sweep and raid operations, our forces apprehended 154 wanted terrorists… and criminals.”
The announcement stated that among them were 102 who were suspected members of a Daesh cell and 27 others accused of providing propaganda or logistical support.
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In the east, 55 villages and fields were destroyed by SDF fighters, along with “vast portions of the Syrian-Iraqi border.”
The US-led coalition has not yet confirmed that the operation was conducted in conjunction with their soldiers, according to the SDF.
During the Christmas and New Year holidays, it stopped attacks on the major Kurdish cities of Hasakah and Qamishli, according to the statement. The most major Daesh operation in Syria since a successful breakout from Ghwayran prison in Hasakah last January was last week’s thwarted prison break in Raqqa.
Numerous militants who were imprisoned broke out, leading to confrontations that claimed hundreds of lives. According to the SDF, three of the detainees apprehended during the recent operation were suspected of delivering bombs and other supplies for the Ghwayran attack.
Daesh still has a network of sleeper cells on both sides of the border that may still launch lethal attacks, despite being a pale imitation of the group that captured large portions of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014 and proclaimed a “caliphate.”
Last week, 12 oil workers and a Kurdish fighter were murdered in attacks in eastern Syria that were attributed to Daesh extremists.
