File image.
On May 16, ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack that killed two government fighters and wounded another near the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The attack took place in the town of Der Khabeyah, which is located some 20 kilometers to the southwest of Damascus city center. ISIS’s news agency, Amaq, claimed that the attack targeted two vehicles of government forces. Both vehicles targeted with improvised explosive devices.
Syrian pro-government sources identified the two fatalities as Raafat Hussein Noureddine and Saad Ahmed Mahdi al-Saeed.
This was ISIS’s first attack in Damascus in nearly a year. The terrorist group’s previous attack took place on 17 September 2021. The attack targeted the Arab gas pipeline, which feeds Deir Ali and Tishreen power stations, as well as two key electricity towers linking the two stations.
Despite strict measures by the Syrian military, intelligence and security forces, ISIS cells are still operating in Damascus countryside.
ISIS’s main stronghold in Syria today, the Homs desert, is directly linked to the Damascus countryside. The movement of Syrian government forces on the border between the two area is restricted due to the presence of US forces in the nearby area of al-Tanf. ISIS is apparently taking advantage of this to move its terrorists from and to Damascus.
Very recently, a warrant officer of the Syrian military was killed and a soldier was wounded when their vehicle was ambushed near the frontline with the US-occupied area of al-Tanf by terrorists believed to be members of ISIS.
