DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities on Thursday said forces killed a senior leader in the Islamic State group and arrested another operative in fresh operations near capital Damascus in coordination with the US-led coalition.
Syrian security and intelligence forces, working in coordination with the international coalition, conducted what the interior ministry described as a “precise security operation” in the Damascus countryside.
“The operation resulted in neutralising the terrorist Mohammad Shahada, known as ‘Abu Omar Shaddad’, who is considered one of the prominent IS leaders in Syria,” it added.“This operation comes as confirmation of the effectiveness of joint coordination between the national security agencies and international partners.”
Later Thursday, the interior ministry said security forces “in joint coordination with international coalition forces” arrested “the leader of a terrorist cell affiliated with the Daesh (IS) organisation” elsewhere near Damascus, seizing weapons and ammunition.
Late Wednesday, authorities said they captured Taha al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an IS leader in the Damascus region, along with several of his men, also in a joint operation with the US-led coalition.
The interior ministry also said on Thursday that security forces had arrested three members of an IS-affiliated cell in Aleppo province.
A December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and an American civilian. Washington blamed the attack on a lone IS gunman in Syria’s Palmyra.
In retaliation, US forces conducted strikes targeting scores of IS targets in Syria.
The strikes killed five members of the jihadist group, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
In November, during a visit by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Washington, Syria officially joined the US-led coalition against IS.
Sharaa is an Islamist ruler and a former jihadist whose group fought IS at the height of his country’s civil war.
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