US helicopter troops fighting with the Syrian Democratic Forces captured a local leader of the Islamic State (IS) armed group in Syria on Saturday, the US military said.
This official, identified as Batar, was “involved in planning attacks against […] detention centers and the manufacture of improvised explosive devices,” said the United States military command for the Middle East (Centcom).
Since the territorial defeat of the IS group in Syria in 2019, several hundred American soldiers, deployed in northeastern Syria as part of the anti-jihadist coalition, continue to fight with the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). ) and to target suspected members of the IS group.
No civilians or members of the US forces were killed or injured in the operation, Centcom added.
Four US soldiers were injured on Thursday night in a previous operation that killed an IS group leader in northeastern Syria, identified as Hamza al-Homsi and who, according to Centcom, “oversaw the group’s deadly terror network.” in eastern Syria.
After jihadists lost their last territory to local Kurdish-led and coalition-backed forces in 2019, the remaining IS group fighters in Syria have mostly retreated to desert hideouts in the east from the country.