Wearing a Syrian military uniform and a US army cap, a security officer perched on top of a pickup mounted with machineguns, on the lookout for any suspicious movement.
Kicking up a cloud of orange dust that briefly turned the barren landscape into a smokescreen, his convoy patrolled the Syrian desert, once a stronghold of ISIS, where sleeper cells regrouped after the downfall of former president Bashar Al Assad’s regime.
The men on these patrols are former members of the dissolved Free Syrian Army (FSA), a small US-trained force, which has been integrated into the Ministry of Interior as part of a broader effort to consolidate rebel factions under a unified national security structure. They fought ISIS for years across Syria, including in the desert region between 2016 and 2017.
The parched landscape still bears the scars of violence: charred tanks and burnt-out vehicles litter the road between Palmyra and the Iraqi border. Now renamed the Desert Security Forces, these veterans are determined to apply their battlefield experience against ISIS sleeper cells.
“We knew ISIS would try to exploit the situation to its advantage and would never give up its desire to carry out destructive acts,” Commander Ahmad Al Tammer told The National.
Although defeated by US and allied Syrian forces in 2019, ISIS sleeper cells continued operating at a low level in eastern Syria. Since Mr Al Assad’s ousting in December by a rebel offensive, they have sought to exploit the country’s fragile political transition.
“After the regime fell, ISIS was preparing for larger operations, but we managed to push its plans back several steps, forcing ISIS to retreat and rethink,” he said, speaking from the Al Tanf garrison, a US military outpost run in co-ordination with its Syrian partners. It was one of Com Al Tammer's first interviews with foreign media since taking command last month.
'Syria is back on our side'
He said the base's main mission is to prevent ISIS from resurfacing and to limit its movements.
“Our roles are divided between mobile detachments and fixed positions. The detachments monitor movements, and the military points act as guard posts,” he said.
“If there is any suspicious or illegal activity, we respond immediately.”
The FSA once maintained security within a 55km deconfliction zone around the Al Tanf garrison, deep in the Syrian Desert. That zone has been expanded to about 140 square kilometres following the withdrawal of Syrian army troops and their allies after the rebel offensive in December.
Syrians and Americans have worked closely at Al Tanf for years. The strategic base in Syria’s tri-border area with Iraq and Jordan was established in 2016 as part of the US-led coalition's efforts to cut ISIS supply routes along the Damascus–Baghdad motorway.
As a result of its critical location, blocking the land corridor from Tehran to Damascus through Baghdad, the base has also become a flashpoint between US and Iranian interests, with Iran-backed militias launching a major drone attack in 2021.
Today, Al Tanf remains one of the last US footholds in Syria. The Stars and Stripes flies over one side of the garrison, while jets from the international coalition against ISIS roar overhead.
Com Al Tammer said US operations at the base, as well as the assistance provided to his forces in combating ISIS, have remained unchanged since the fall of the regime.
US-Syrian co-operation to counter terrorist threats has strengthened since the Assad regime’s toppling, as the former pariah state seeks to rebuild ties with the international community.
The US and Syria’s new authorities have reportedly conducted joint operations on Syrian territory against renewed ISIS threats.
Last week, international coalition forces carried out an air raid in the suburbs of Damascus to detain an ISIS member, with the reported co-ordination of local security forces.
“Syria is back on our side,” US special envoy Tom Barrack posted on X following the operation.
Database, raids and cyber operations
The raid was part of a broader crackdown on ISIS by the new Syrian authorities across the country, including one linked to the Damascus church bombing.
Com Al Tammer said that while ISIS poses threats in urban areas, the Syrian Badia, a vast region stretching across central and eastern Syria, has always been a strategic haven for the group.
In July, his unit took part in an anti-ISIS operation in the Teloul Al Safa desert, once one of the group’s most significant strongholds. He said the authorities have largely kept the situation under control.
Interior Ministry spokesman Nourredine Al Baba told The National that security forces had foiled two major attacks, one targeting Sayyida Zainab, on the outskirts of Damascus, one of the most important pilgrimage sites for Shiite Muslims, and another involving a motorcycle bombing attempt in the capital.
Mr Al Baba said the authorities’ fight against ISIS relies on a database of individuals who have previously dealt with the group, along with extensive monitoring.
He added that security forces also carry out field operations and patrols, using drones to cover wide areas in an effort to cut off ISIS’s supply routes to and from Syria, as well as cyber operations targeting the group’s networks.
He added that anti-ISIS co-operation is conducted with the international coalition and “all parties concerned with combating the activities of the ISIS terrorist organisation”, especially given the cross-border nature of the threat.
'Sell-outs' and 'apostates'
ISIS opposes the new authorities in Damascus, led by President Ahmad Al Shara, the former leader of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), the now dissolved group that led the rebel offensive against Mr Al Assad.
Mr Al Shara, once the head of Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, severed ties with the organisation in 2016 and went on to fight battles against ISIS.
The terrorist group has claimed several attacks in Syria since December, including the suicide attack on a church in Damascus that killed at least 25 people and a bomb attack on the Syrian army in May.
It has also carried out about 150 attacks in a semi-automous area controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the north-east, killing at least 30 SDF fighters.
Since taking power, Mr Al Shara, an insurgent-turned-statesman now welcomed by much of the international community, has sought to reassure minorities and emphasised inclusivity in governance, in a complete rebranding of his image.
“Ideologues within ISIS or Al Qaeda now hate the new leaders in Damascus,” said Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute. “They think they’re sell-outs, a bunch of apostates.”
He added that the ISIS insurgency has been more active in the north-east, in the Kurdish-run areas, particularly around Deir Ezzor, rather than in territories controlled by the new government.
There, he said, ISIS may be pursuing a different strategy, by deliberately not claiming responsibility for its attacks to create the impression of weakness.
The uncertainty over who is carrying out the violence also has a greater potential to sow fear and destabilise the fragile political transition, he added.
“It also creates confusion and chaos, as it's difficult to determine which of these attacks are actually linked to ISIS, as opposed to other dynamics such as revenge killings stemming from the war,” he said.
