https://arab.news/2juey
- The security forces seized weapons, bombs and uniforms with the security forces’ insignia
- A security source said the raids had targeted sleeper cells in four locations
DAMASCUS: The Syrian Arab Republic’s Interior Ministry said a member of the security forces was killed on Saturday in clashes with a Daesh cell in the northern city of Aleppo.
The ministry said that “the Aleppo security department together with the general intelligence services carried out a raid targeting a hideout where a Daesh organization cell was entrenched.”
“The clashes accompanying the operation led to the death of a member of the General Security force,” the statement said.
Forces stormed the site and seized “explosive devices, an explosive vest and a number of General Security force uniforms,” the statement added.
A security source said the raids had targeted sleeper cells in four locations, and 10 people had been arrested. One Daesh militant had blown himself up, and another had been killed in clashes, the source said.
Syria’s transitional authorities face the daunting task of maintaining security in the ethnically and religiously diverse country.
US President Donald Trump this week offered to ease sanctions on Syria and presented demands on Damascus that include helping prevent a resurgence of Daesh.
Daesh seized large swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory in the early years of Syria’s civil war, declaring a cross-border “caliphate” in 2014.
US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces spearheaded the battle that led to Daesh’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019, but the terrorists have maintained a presence mainly in the country’s vast desert.
Terrorists killed five members of the Kurdish-led forces in eastern Syria last month, in one of their deadliest attacks in a while.
In January, the Syrian authorities announced they had foiled an attack by Daesh on the Sayeda Zeinab shrine in a Damascus suburb, and had arrested members of the cell.