ISIS gunmen have killed a Syrian soldier in an attack on an army base, security sources said on Tuesday, in the latest violent incident since the group declared war against President Ahmad Al Shara and his US-backed government on Sunday.
Syria's official news agency said the soldier was killed when “unknown assailants” attacked a compound near the city of Al Mayadin, east of the provincial capital Deir Ezzor, on Monday. A Syrian security official told The National the attack was carried out by an “ISIS cell”.
It brought to nine the number of Syrian security personnel killed in the east in the latest spate of violence. Two days ago, ISIS declared war on Syria's post-Assad order, describing it as illegitimate because of its links with Turkey and the United States.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for three out of five recent attacks on army personnel. In December last year, three Americans were killed in an attack in Palmyra, a strategic desert outpost. Authorities said the attack was carried out by a Syrian officer who was an ISIS member.
A vacuum has been developing in the east since government forces overran areas held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, with the US also reducing its military presence the region, said security sources in Syria and neighbouring Jordan.
The area along the Euphrates valley is vast, comprising the governorates of Raqqa – scene of most of the ISIS attacks over the past three days, Deir Ezzor and most of Hasakah. It contains pockets of ISIS supporters, although many had moved to urban areas near Aleppo and Damascus over the past year, the sources said.
One source in Jordan said the attacks were in response to aerial raids by the US against ISIS positions in Syria's desert in the first half of February, as well as separate ground operations by Syrian security forces against ISIS operatives in urban areas between Damascus and Aleppo.
The source said that ISIS chose to retaliate in the east because the government is still establishing control there. However, once “control is established, counter insurgency operations will start” in the area.
Abu Hudhayfa Al Ansari, an ISIS spokesman, said in a recorded message on Sunday that Syria has entered a “new chapter” of struggle. He called Mr Al Shara “a new despot” whose fate “will not be better” than that of the former president Bashar Al Assad.
Syria joined the US-led anti-ISIS coalition in November 2025. Mr Al Shara turned against ISIS during his time as an insurgent, before leading his Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group on an 11-day offensive that toppled the Assad regime in December 2024.
