ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday announced the capture of a “dangerous” Islamic State (ISIS) commander in Syria’s Raqqa province, reportedly responsible for overseeing the distribution of weapons and coordinating activity among the group’s sleeper cells.
In a statement, the SDF reported that its Military Operations Teams (TOL), with support from the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, “carried out a precise and comprehensive security operation in Tabqa city,” located southeast of Raqqa, to “arrest a dangerous commander of ISIS terrorist cells.”
The TOL units specialize in counterterrorism raids and special operations.
The ISIS operative - Ahmad Abd al-Qader al-Moussa - was accused of “overseeing the receipt and delivery of weapons and military equipment and their distribution to [ISIS] terrorist cells,” and had been monitoring the Kurdish forces’ outposts. During the operation, a cache of weapons and hand grenades was also seized.
In mid-September, the SDF said it had detained another “dangerous” ISIS operative in Raqqa, allegedly involved in manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) using TNT, seizing 180 explosive blocks and related materials.
Although ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, it has recently sought to regain ground in Syria amid the instability that followed the fall of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December.
As the de facto military force in northeast Syria (Rojava), the SDF remains actively engaged in counterterrorism operations to prevent the reemergence of ISIS.
In their Tuesday statement, the Kurdish-led forces reaffirmed their commitment to “security operations against the remnants of the terrorist organization’s cells,” and pledged to “spare no effort to preserve the security and safety of the residents and the stability of their areas.”