SDF Units Arrest ISIS Leader, Kill Another in Syria's Deir Ezzor

Women at the al-Hol camp in Syria's Hasakeh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Women at the al-Hol camp in Syria's Hasakeh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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SDF Units Arrest ISIS Leader, Kill Another in Syria's Deir Ezzor

Women at the al-Hol camp in Syria's Hasakeh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Women at the al-Hol camp in Syria's Hasakeh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the killing of a prominent ISIS leader responsible for terror plots and operations in the eastern countryside of Syria’s east governorate of Deir Ezzor.

Another significant terror leader was arrested. They were responsible for transferring explosives and ammunition to active members of the terror organization in Deir Ezzor.

This comes at a time the US-led International Coalition carried out an airdrop operation west of Deir Ezzor in search of wanted persons, with the participation of three US helicopters and SDF forces.

“SDF units killed Abu Hamza Shamiyah, the chief leader responsible for plotting attacks in the area,” Farhad Shami, the director of the SDF media center, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Abu Hamza Shamiyah was the architect of multiple assaults against SDF positions, local tribes, and civilians.

He was one of the most wanted fugitives in Deir Ezzor after staging a terror assault that targeted SDF units on February 10.

The terror hit resulted in the death of five SDF fighters, according to Shami.

“We arrested Shukri Kamal Khalil, in the village of Zghair in the western countryside of Deir Ezzor,” Shami added, noting that the detained terrorist was a leader of multiple sleeper cells.

SDF units seized large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and narcotics in Khalil’s possession.

On February 13, SDF units arrested an ISIS officer behind a terror funding ring that was supporting the group’s activity in Syria.



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.