ISIS on Thursday claimed responsibility for an attack that killed a Syrian police officer and wounded another, the fourth known assault by the group against the government that took power in late 2024.
The extremist group said through its Amaq news agency that it carried out the attack on Wednesday in the town of Raghib, in Syria's eastern Deir Ezzor province.
A Syrian security source told Reuters that the deceased and the wounded officer were brothers.
ISIS seized control of vast areas in Syria and Iraq after an advance that shocked the world in 2014. But, pursued by US warplanes and local fighters, the group lost its last patch of territory in Syria in 2019, although it has continued sporadic attacks. Iraq had declared victory in 2017.
Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara, a former hardline militant who has moderated his image since winning power, has taken Syria into the American-led coalition against ISIS and sought to assure the US that his government can keep the militants at bay.
Doubts were raised after an ambush in Palmyra that killed three Americans in December. It was later revealed the attacker was a renegade Syrian officer. The same month, five Syrians were killed and others wounded in two attacks by suspected ISIS supporters.
The US responded with military strikes. It also intervened to relocate more than 5,000 ISIS prisoners to Iraq after internal fighting in north-east Syria raised fears of a mass escape.
American bombers carried out 10 more strikes in the first half of February, said the US military, which added that more than 50 ISIS fighters have been killed in the recent campaign.
But American ground troops have departed from two key bases in Syria, confirming the US strategy of relying on the new government in Damascus. The National recently joined Syrian troops as they dismantled former ISIS positions in Deir Ezzor.
