A Kurdish-led group in Syria said Monday that its fighters alongside US forces have arrested a wanted militant with the ISIS group that continues to stage attacks in the region.
There are some 900 US troops in Syria supporting Kurdish-led forces in the fight against the militant group.
The Syrian Democratic Forces said its fighters led a raid on the home of an unnamed ISIS leader on Dec. 16 in the western countryside of Deir Ezzor. The group's statement claimed the arrested man managed militant cells in the region.
The SDF shared a photo purporting to show evidence they confiscated during the raid, including two cellphones, a dozen SIM cards, an internet router, a Syrian-issued identity document and a pistol with three magazines.
The SDF added that this was the fifth such raid over the past two weeks.
They have frequently targeted the militants mostly in parts of northeastern Syria under Kurdish control. On Dec. 11, a US helicopter raid in eastern Syria killed two ISIS militants.
Syria has been mired in a bloody civil war since 2011 that has drawn in regional and global powers. Syrian President Bashar Assad has mostly regained control of the country, but parts of its north remain under the control of rebels, as well as Turkish and Syrian Kurdish forces.
Türkiye strongly opposes the presence of the Syrian Kurdish groups along its border that it blames for attacks within its territory. A series of Turkish airstrikes in the area earlier this month temporarily halted US-Kurdish patrols and raised concerns that cross border tensions would hinder the fight against ISIS.
On Nov. 30, ISIS announced that leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in battle. The US said al-Qurayshi was killed in an operation conducted by Syrian opposition forces in the southern city of Daraa.
