The official Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported that US forces carried out a large "airdrop operation" at dawn on Monday in the town of Al-Buseira in the countryside of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, killing and "kidnapping" a number of civilians, while the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) announced the implementation of an operation in the area. As a result, 4 ISIS members were killed, without arrests.
The Syrian Agency stated that the American operation in and around Al-Buseira was carried out with the support of the SDF militants, which are dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, and indicated that the attack was accompanied by intense and indiscriminate shooting on houses and agricultural lands, which resulted in the killing of 3 civilians from one family, according to the agency. the Syrian regime.
And the agency affiliated with the Syrian regime pointed out that the American forces "kidnapped, during their raid on the town, a number of residents and took them to an unknown destination."
According to the agency, on December 7, an American infantry force carried out an airdrop in the town of Al-Shuhail in the Deir ez-Zor countryside with the support of a group of SDF gunmen, "and kidnapped a number of civilians and then proceeded to destroy the houses that they had raided."
On the other hand, Washington denied that any arrests had taken place in an operation carried out by the international coalition it leads against ISIS and in cooperation with the Syrian Democratic Forces in Al-Busairah. The US Department of Defense indicated that 4 ISIS militants were killed in the operation, including a person who was wearing an explosive vest.
The Pentagon also pointed to a separate operation carried out by the SDF alone, but did not say whether the group had arrested anyone.
Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (Al-Jazeera - Archive)
Operation details
The Syrian Democratic Forces also stated that, with the support of the international coalition led by Washington, it carried out a security operation near the town of Al-Busaira, targeting a "dangerous cell" of the International Organization, killing 5 people from the cell.
The SDF said, "The cell's location was raided with air support, as members of the terrorist cell opened fire... Our forces responded to the sources of fire, which led to the killing of 5 members of the cell," noting that "most of them were wearing explosive belts." .
In turn, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights counted the killing of 4 people in the raid, which included an exchange of fire, a man and his two sons, in addition to his son-in-law, who is likely to be the main wanted person in the operation.
He pointed out that two of them were killed by machine-gun fire from helicopters.
The Syrian Democratic Forces also arrested - according to the Syrian Observatory - arms dealers and others suspected of belonging to ISIS.
In March 2019, the Syrian Democratic Forces announced the elimination of ISIS after the end of the last battles against it in the village of Al-Baghuz bordering Iraq.
Since then, the organization's fighters have retreated mainly to the Syrian Badia, which extends between the governorates of Homs (central) and Deir ez-Zor on the border with Iraq, and many are also hiding in the villages of Deir ez-Zor countryside.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, in cooperation with the coalition, launched a security campaign to pursue the elements hiding in their areas of control.
With the support of the coalition, especially in Deir ez-Zor governorate, raids and arrest campaigns of suspected members of the organization are being launched periodically.
It is noteworthy that Deir ez-Zor province, located on the border with Iraq, is a strategic supply route for armed factions backed by Iran, which send reinforcements to Syria on a regular basis to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
US forces are also deployed at a coalition military base in the Al-Tanf region, south of Deir ez-Zor, as part of a combat mission against ISIS, which is still operating on a limited level in Iraq and Syria.