US Central Command said in a press release on Wednesday that its forces in Syria “advised, assisted, and enabled” more than 22 military operations over the past month that resulted in the killing of five alleged ISIS members and the capture of 19.
CENTCOM said the operations were conducted with “Syrian partners,” which include the Kurdish-led SDF based in northeast Syria and now the new Syrian government, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda.
The CENTCOM press release noted that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was once an ally of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS, announced this week that Syria has officially joined the US-led anti-ISIS coalition.
One joint raid conducted by US and Syrian forces on October 18 resulted in the killing of Ahmad Abdullah Al-Masoud al-Badri, who was known as a former ISIS commander who also had ties with Syria’s HTS government, having received a visit from government officials just a month before the raid.
According to Syria Weekly, a pro-HTS media outlet, al-Badri was shot during the raid but was later released after US and Syrian forces learned that he worked for the intelligence wing of HTS, but he succumbed to his wounds. The report claimed al-Badri was not affiliated with ISIS, but other reports describe him as a senior ISIS leader. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), one other ISIS member was killed in the raid and another was injured.
The raid raises questions about the HTS government’s potential alignment with members of ISIS since the two groups share a similar ideology. Despite the issues with the raid, it was celebrated by US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who wrote on X in response to the news of the capture of al-Badri, “Syria is back to our side.”
The US is expected to continue boosting its military alliance with the new Syrian government, and, according to a report from Reuters, the US is planning to establish a military presence at an airbase in Damascus as part of a plan to monitor a potential security deal between Syria and Israel.