ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Five members of the Kurdish-led internal security forces (Asayish) were killed in northeast Syria (Rojava) in an attack carried out by Islamic State (ISIS) militants, a war monitor reported on Monday, adding that the incident underscores a surge in ISIS activity targeting both civilians and security forces in Kurdish-controlled areas.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the five Asayish members “were killed in Hasaka province when ISIS cells attacked their security checkpoint on the al-Dashisha road in southern Hasaka countryside.
“The assailants fled to an unknown location,” SOHR added.
The UK-based war monitor characterized the attack as part of a broader ISIS campaign aimed at “reorganizing its ranks and creating a state of chaos.”
Since the beginning of 2025, SOHR says it has “documented 126 ISIS operations” in areas administered by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES).
“These operations included armed assaults, targeted killings and bombings,” resulting in the deaths of 51 individuals - 34 fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), nine civilians, and eight ISIS members.
The US-backed SDF was instrumental in defeating ISIS in 2019 and capturing thousands of the group’s fighters. The force continues to operate in coordination with hundreds of US troops as part of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
Both the SDF and Asayish are also primarily responsible for securing the Roj and al-Hol camps in Rojava. These camps house thousands of individuals suspected of ISIS ties and are widely viewed as potential breeding grounds for extremist ideology.
Since its defeat in 2019, ISIS has been trying to regain its strength, particularly after a coalition of opposition groups led by the now-dissolved Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on December 8 toppled the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
SDF chief Mazloum Abdi has repeatedly warned of the growing threat posed by ISIS. In mid- January, he urged the “need to intensify efforts to continue the fight against ISIS if we don’t want to see it make a comeback.”
