Syria launches operation against ISIS as Al Shara arrives in Washington

Syrian security forces have killed an ISIS member and arrested 71 others in the past 24 hours in a major operation across the country, authorities said.

News of the operation came as Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara arrived in Washington to join a US-led coalition against the extremist group.

“The group was intending to mount new operations, either against the government or against the components [minorities] in Syria as it joins the international coalition against ISIS,” Interior Ministry spokesman Noureddine Al Baba said.

The operation comprised 61 raids in Damascus and the provinces of Homs, Hama, Aleppo and Idlib to the north, as well as eastern regions, including the Badia desert.

Parts of central and eastern Syria are under the control of the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the US founded in 2015 as the ground component of the war against ISIS in Syria, but whose status could change after the imposition of a Syria-US security deal.

The central government and the SDF have been engaged in US-supervised talks on integrating the group into the new Syrian state.

On Saturday the official Sana news agency said Mr Al Shara had arrived in Washington on an official visit, and that he will meet US President Donald Trump on Monday. Mr Al Shara's trip is the first by a modern Syrian leader to the American capital. US officials say it is aimed at bringing Syria into the US-led anti-ISIS coalition, although Mr Trump is also expected to push him to make progress on a security deal with Israel.

Mr Al Shara turned against ISIS during the middle stages of his career as an insurgent, which ended when he led Hayat Tahrir Al Sham on an 11-day offensive that toppled the regime of former president Bashar Al Assad in December.

Ministry spokesman Mr Al Baba said the “peak” of ISIS activity in post-Assad Syria was a suicide bombing that killed 23 people at a church in a low-income area of Damascus in June. However, regional security sources have said the attack may have been carried out by militants who were allied with HTS but turned against Mr Al Shara after the downfall of the former regime.

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Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer

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Syria launches operation against ISIS as Al Shara arrives in Washington

Official says extremist group was intending to renew attacks against government or minorities

Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026

David Haye record