Illustrative image
On July 15, an IED, which had been planted by ISIS cells, exploded in a vehicle of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the village of Jididat Kuhyt east of the city of Raqqa, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. As a result of the attack, the vehicle was destroyed and five fighters of the SDF were killed.
A day earlier, ISIS cells targeted and destroyed a vehicle of the SDF near the village of al-Trauziyah on the Aleppo-al-Hasakah highway with a similar IED.
Meanwhile, the Kurdish Hawar News Agency (ANHA) reported that the SDF’s security forces (Asayish) arrested a network of weapon traffickers in Raqqa. According to an official statement of the Asayish, the network sold loads of weapons and ammunition to ISIS cells in the city.
Asayish seized several light weapons, loads of ammunition and what appears to be a damaged Konkurs anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) launcher while inspecting the houses of the suspects.
Click to see full-size image, By ANHA
During the last two months, Asayish launched several security operations against weapons traffickers and ISIS cells in the SDF-held areas. However, these efforts remain short from what is needed to counter the influence of the terrorist group.
A lot of competing forces in Raqqa, the inability of any of them to form a coherent policy or alliance means that most like the men on the ground with weapons will continue to rule.
These weapons mostly look like old and just regular weapons tribals have, all the handguns are older models even the rifles one can see these are kept as personal weapons at home.
Really sad when US and SDF(ISIS) Raqqa spin such pathetic assertions about ISIS when it’s a local insurgency a they should leave and let SAA and Russia clear the mines and rebuild the city and catalogue and bury the dead.