Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported that ISIS launched 18 attacks in the first half of May, 13 of which were in the areas under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Deir ez-Zor, and five in the areas held by the Syrian regime.
Around 29 people were killed in the attacks, including a civilian.
ISIS attacks in Syria, particularly in the vast expanses of its eastern and northern desert where the group is active amid a security vacuum, have been on the rise in recent months, sparking fears of a possible resurgence.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate.”
While the group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019, respectively, it still continues to pose serious security risks through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, especially across the vast expanses of the Syrian desert as well as several Iraqi provinces.
The Kurdish-led and US-backed SDF, who control northeast Syria (Rojava), fought the lion’s share of the battle against ISIS and arrested thousands of the terror group’s fighters along with their wives and children when they crushed ISIS territorially and took the group’s last stronghold in Syria in 2019.
In late March, the SDF warned that ISIS still poses a threat to the world and the region as its defeat “requires dismantling its ideological breeding ground,”
“ISIS is still trying to recruit new terrorist elements, attempting to radicalize them into its ranks,” said the SDF, calling on the international community to “collaborate effectively” with its forces.
