SDF, Coalition launch anti-ISIS operation in Syria’s Raqqa, Tabqa
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Wednesday that they had launched a new operation to pursue Islamic State (ISIS) sleeper cells in coordination with the US-led Global Coalition in Raqqa, Tabqa and surrounding regions, north Syria.
The SDF media center announced, in a statement, a large-scale security operation named “Operation Retaliation for Raqqa Martyrs,” aiming to target ISIS sleeper cells and their operatives, destroying channels of communication between them, uprooting their potential hideouts and drying up their enabling environment, primarily facilitators and recruitment networks.
In December 2022, a group of ISIS militants attacked a security center of the Internal Security Forces of North and East Syria (Asayish) in Raqqa, killing six officers of the Asayish and the SDF.
The operation will be carried out in coordination with the US-led Global Coalition.
“A joint operations room has been formed, backed by International Coalition airpower,” the statement reads. It is set to be the first SDF-Coalition operation in Raqqa since US troops pulled out of the region in 2019.
The large-scale operations have already borne results that will be announced soon, according to the SDF media center.
In December 2022, the SDF launched Operation ‘Al-Jazeera Thunderbolt’ in the countryside of Hasakah and Qamishli to pursue ISIS sleeper cells.