Raqqa – Northeast Syria The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Saturday that they had carried out a coordinated security operation targeting ISIS cells in the city of Raqqa, north-eastern Syria.
In a statement quoted by the pro–Autonomous Administration news agency Hawar, the SDF said: “Our forces conducted a joint security operation in Raqqa, in coordination with the International Coalition, targeting hideouts of ISIS terrorist cells.” The statement added that a number of ISIS militants were “neutralised” and their facilities and hideouts destroyed.
According to the SDF, operations are still under way “until the threat is fully eliminated”, with the group pledging to inform the public once the search operations are complete and results confirmed.
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Last week, Siyamend Ali, spokesperson for the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the leading component of the SDF – said that ISIS attacks had increased tenfold since the collapse of the former regime last December. Speaking to the BBC, Ali explained that ISIS militants had taken advantage of the chaos following the fall of the regime to seize large quantities of weapons from its depots. He added that the group had expanded its tactics beyond hit-and-run attacks to targeting checkpoints and planting explosive devices. Over the past year, the SDF lost around 30 fighters in clashes with ISIS, while 95 militants were captured.
The BBC reported that SDF counterterrorism officials confirmed ISIS cells were reorganising and intensifying attacks in north-eastern Syria. According to SDF sources, the group is exploiting the security vacuum that followed the ousting of former president Bashar al-Assad to rebuild its presence on Syrian soil.
The report added that prisons run by the SDF remain overcrowded, holding around 8,000 suspected ISIS members from 48 different countries – including Britons, Americans, Russians, and Australians – many of whom have been detained for years without clear judicial proceedings.
An official at the Hasakah prison, which holds ISIS detainees, told the BBC that the group still maintains influence even inside detention facilities. “Each wing has its own emir who issues fatwas and delivers religious lessons,” he said.
Hakmiya Ibrahim, the administrator of Roj camp in Syria’s north-eastern Hasakah province, said that nine British families live in the camp, including 12 children. She estimated that around 75 per cent of camp residents still adhere to ISIS ideology. “We are deeply concerned for the children,” she said. “They are growing up in a dangerous ideological environment, absorbing extremist beliefs from an early age. These children could become the next generation of ISIS – perhaps even more radical than their parents.”
A senior SDF commander told the BBC that ISIS is now focusing on smuggling children out of the camps as part of what it calls “the liberation of the Caliphate Cubs”. The commander confirmed that some of these smuggling attempts had already succeeded.
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal revealed that ISIS has been regaining strength in Syria, taking advantage of the political and security vacuum left by the gradual withdrawal of US troops and the waning international focus on counterterrorism operations in the country. The paper reported that ISIS had carried out more than 117 attacks since the start of 2025 in Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, and the Syrian desert – a sharp increase compared with 73 attacks recorded during 2024.
