Syria’s interior ministry said a member of the security forces was killed in an operation that left three Islamic State group jihadists dead on Saturday in the northern city of Aleppo.
“The Aleppo security department together with the general intelligence services carried out a raid targeting a hideout where a Daesh organization cell was entrenched,” the ministry said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
“The clashes accompanying the operation led to the death of a member of the General Security force,” the statement said.
The ministry later said the operation against the seven-member cell had concluded, adding that it “resulted in the neutralization of three of them, and the arrest of four others.”
Forces stormed the location and seized “explosive devices, an explosive vest and a number of General Security force uniforms,” the statement added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor had a different toll of five dead, including two security forces personnel.
The Britain-based Observatory said “three members of a cell believed to be affiliated” with IS were killed, with two blowing themselves up.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that the Islamist extremists may have been “former security force members” who had defected to IS.
Syria’s transitional authorities, who have roots in the Al-Qaeda jihadist network, face the daunting task of maintaining security in the war-torn country.
Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham spearheaded the offensive that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December after nearly 14 years of conflict.
The new administration has dissolved all armed factions, with some groups, including HTS, being integrated into bodies, including the General Security, the country’s new police force.
US President Donald Trump this week offered to ease sanctions on Syria and presented demands on Damascus that include helping prevent a resurgence of IS.
IS seized large swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in the early years of Syria’s civil war, declaring a cross-border “caliphate” in 2014.
US-backed Kurdish-led forces spearheaded the battle that led to IS’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019, but the jihadists have maintained a presence mainly in the country’s vast desert.
