Syrian government forces raid Islamic State hideouts in Aleppo
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Syria’s interim President, Mr Ahmed al-Sharaa, who once led a branch of Al-Qaeda, has long been an adversary of Islamic State.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
DAMASCUS – The Syrian security forces raided Islamic State hideouts in Aleppo on May 17, killing at least one militant and arresting others, the authorities said, the first time the Islamist-led government has announced such an operation in Syria’s second city.
A member of the security forces was also killed, a statement issued by a Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson said.
The security forces seized weapons, bombs and uniforms with the security forces’ insignia.
A security source said the raids had targeted sleeper cells in four locations, and 10 people had been arrested.
One Islamic State militant had blown himself up, and another had been killed in clashes, the source said.
Syria’s interim President, Mr Ahmed al-Sharaa, who once led a branch of Al-Qaeda, has long been an adversary of Islamic State, and battled the group’s self-declared caliphate during the Syrian war.
US President Donald Trump met Mr Sharaa
Mr Trump also declared the US would lift sanctions,
Mr Sharaa seized power in Damascus in December
People walking around in Aleppo, Syria, on May 14. The Syrian security forces raided Islamic State hideouts in the city on May 17.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
Islamic State controlled swathes of Syria and Iraq at the height of its power, before being beaten out of the territory by enemies including a US-led military alliance.
In January, the Syrian authorities announced they had foiled an attack by Islamic State on the Sayeda Zeinab shrine in a Damascus suburb, a site of mass pilgrimage for Shi’ites, and had arrested members of the cell.
Islamic State militants killed five members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria in April, in one of their deadliest attacks in a while. REUTERS
