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On August 27, ISIS announced that its cells in the northern Raqqa countryside had targeted a vehicle of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) with an improvised explosive device (IED).
The attack took place a day earlier, near the town of Ain Issa which is held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). ISIS’s news agency, Amaq, said that the IED explosion damaged the military vehicle, killing a soldier and wounding another.
This was ISIS first attack on SAA troops in the northern Raqqa countryside in well over a year. The terrorist group’s cells in the region usually target SDF fighters only.
The SAA returned to the northern Raqqa countryside in October of 2019 to monitor a ceasefire between the SDF and Turkish forces. With support from the Russian Military Police, the army established a network of posts in the region over the last three years.
Recently, the SAA deployed large reinforcements around Ain Issa and in other parts of the northern Raqqa countryside to deter the Turkish military and its proxies who have been threatening the SDF with a new large-scale operation.
The SDF and its main backer, the US-led coalition, have clearly failed to contain ISIS cells in Raqqa and other parts of northeastern Syria.
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