ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced Monday that they "successfully thwarted" a suicide attack by suspected Islamic State (ISIS) militants in northern Syria’s former jihadist stronghold of Raqqa.
"At approximately 11:50 pm on Sunday, August 31, our SDF forces successfully thwarted a suicide attack carried out by a terrorist cell suspected of belonging to ISIS," the SDF said in a statement. "The attack targeted one of our military points in the northern countryside of Raqqa."
The SDF detailed that during "direct clashes with the terrorist cell, one of the terrorists was wounded and subsequently detonated his explosive belt. Our fighters managed to eliminate the second terrorist in the course of the engagement."
It said three SDF fighters were slightly wounded during the fight.
The latest attack by suspected remnants of ISIS comes amid a resurgence of the extremist group's activities in Syria, where the jihadists have sought to take advantage of instability following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
On Saturday, the SDF said that they arrested 51 ISIS suspects in an extensive operation in northeast Syria’s (Rojava) Hasaka city, seizing a significant number of weapons in the process.
“Dangerous terrorist networks were dismantled, including cells that had been plotting attacks on Al-Sina’a Prison and Al-Hol Camp. The campaign has neutralized the immediate threat to civilians and regional stability,” the SDF said Saturday, referring to facilities in Hasaka holding ISIS-affiliated people.
A significant number of weapons were also confiscated.
Al-Sina’a prison, known locally as Ghweran, is a large complex that houses ISIS militants. An attempted prison break at the facility in January 2022 left at least 322 people dead after the SDF laid a week-long siege to thwart the escape.
Al-Hol camp is infamous for its squalid conditions and has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism. Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of the nearly 28,000 held in the camp that also houses people who traveled from around the world to join ISIS.
ISIS rose to power in 2014, seizing large areas of Iraq and Syria and declaring a so-called “caliphate.” The group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. Despite its territorial losses, ISIS continues to pose a security threat, particularly in Syria’s vast eastern desert.
Last month, an SDF spokesperson told Rudaw that an estimated 2,000 ISIS militants remain active in the Syrian desert.
