America Attacks ISIS Sites in Syria as Cooperation With Damascus Deepens

The U.S. army announced that it destroyed more than 15 sites containing ISIS weapons caches in Syria in the past week. U.S Central Command (CENTCOM) said that the sites were located and destroyed with assistance from the Syrian Ministry of Interior from November 24-27.U.S. military personnel worked with Syrian forces in “identifying and eliminating the ISIS weapons storage facilities across the Rif Damashq province during multiple airstrikes and ground detonations,” CENTCOM said. The operation destroyed over 130 mortars and rockets, multiple assault rifles, machine guns, anti-tank mines, and materials for building improvised explosive devices, while forces also discovered and destroyed illicit drugs.“This successful operation ensures gains made against ISIS are lasting and the group is not able to regenerate or export terrorist attacks to the U.S. homeland and around the world,” Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in a statement. “We will remain vigilant and continue to aggressively pursue ISIS remnants in Syria,” he added. CENTCOM said on November 13 that its forces had”“advised, assisted, and enabled more than 22 operations against ISIS with partners in Syria” over the past month. The operations resulted in five ISIS members killed and 19 captured.“We will continue to aggressively pursue ISIS remnants in Syria while working with the Global Coalition Against ISIS to ensure the gains made against the group in Iraq and Syria are lasting and ISIS is not able to regenerate or export terrorist attacks to other countries,” Mr. Cooper said at the time. The attacks mark a new turn for U.S.-Syrian cooperation on ISIS following President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House where he pledged to assist the U.S. in fighting ISIS. Syrian Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa said at the time that the agreement with the U.S. about joining its coalition against ISIS was “political” and doesn’t contain “military components.”Mr. Al-Sharaa’s forces have themselves carried out widespread raids against ISIS, arresting 71 suspects and seizing weapons and explosives at the beginning of November. ISIS reportedly planned to assassinate Mr. Al-Sharaa twice, attempts which were thwarted by the Syrian regime. The U.S.-Syrian efforts against ISIS are part of a broad change in relationship between the two countries under Mr. Al-Sharaa, who is no longer on the American terror list. President Trump has frozen U.S. sanctions on Syria for 180 days in what’s seen as an incentive for Mr. Al-Sharaa to reign in his jihadist forces, create peace and stability and allow for foreign countries to help rebuild the war-torn country. Despite efforts by the Trump administration to get Syria and Israel to sign a security agreement, Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed to continue controlling Israeli-seized territory in Syria. Mr. Al-Sharaa has said there won’t be any agreement with Israel until it withdraws from the areas it took control of after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad on December 8 last year. Last week, the IDF carried out raids in the area of Beit Jinn in southern Syria, arresting two members of the Jaama Islamiya organization. The raid led to fierce face-to-face battles, leaving six IDF soldiers wounded and nine Syrians killed. The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned “the criminal attack carried out by an Israeli occupation army patrol in Beit Jinn. The occupation forces’ targeting of the town of Beit Jinn with brutal and deliberate shelling, following their failed incursion, constitutes a full-fledged war crime.”

America Attacks ISIS Sites in Syria as Cooperation With Damascus Deepens

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