...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(ISIS) in the southern province of Rif Dimashq in a joint operation with the global coalition against the group, according to the interior ministry.
The ministry cited the head of the local security forces in Rif Dimashq, Ahmed al-Dalati, in an overnight statement as saying that his forces, Syrian intelligence and the US-led global coalition "carried out a precise security operation targeting a hideout of the ISIS terrorist organization in the town of Moadamiya in Rif Dimashq province, following thorough surveillance and intense intelligence monitoring."
Dalati added that the operation resulted in the arrest of the head of ISIS leader in Damascus Taha al-Zoubi - also known as Abu Omar Tabea - and several of his aides.
"A suicide belt and military weapon were found in his possession. This operation represents a major blow to the organization and confirms the high readiness of our security agencies in confronting any threat to the security of the governorate and its surroundings," he added.
The coalition has yet to comment on the raid.
Syria officially joined the multi-nation coalition in November following a landmark meeting between US President Doland Trump and Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House, the first such encounter with a Syrian president in more than eight decades.
Since joining the coalition, Damascus has carried out several joint anti-ISIS operations with the military alliance. Three Americans were killed in Syria’s central Homs province in mid-December when the US army was carrying out a joint anti-ISIS operation with the Syrian forces in the area. Washington carried out a large-scale aerial campaign days later targeting ISIS positions across Syria.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who act as the de facto military force in the Kurdish region in northeast Syria (Rojava), have also intensified attacks on ISIS cells. The SDF said on Tuesday that they killed three ISIS members and captured five others in an operation in eastern Deir ez-Zor province.
The SDF was the primary on-the-ground partner of the global coalition against ISIS in Syria before Damascus joined the coalition. The multi-ethnic SDF remains a key ally of the military alliance and continues to conduct joint operations with it.