DNA
DAMASCUS: Syrian security forces have arrested a nine-member cell affiliated with Daesh in the southern province of Quneitra, authorities said Sunday, as a stepped-up campaign targets the militant group’s networks and supply lines.
The Internal Security Forces, working with the General Intelligence Service, detained the suspects in Khan Arnabah, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA.
Among those arrested was the alleged cell leader, Musab Khalil Al-Sheikh, known as “Al-Sini” — or “the Chinese” — who authorities said had previously operated with Daesh (also known as ISIS) in Damascus and its countryside, the Syrian Badia and villages in the Hauran region.
The ministry said Al-Sheikh had also been part of a group affiliated with Abu Abdulrahman Al-Iraqi, a Daesh leader who was killed in Daraa in 2022.
Preliminary investigations found that the cell had carried out tasks for Daesh including collecting weapons and transporting explosive devices and related materials, as well as other activities intended to support the group’s operations, the ministry said.
The suspects were referred to the relevant authorities for further investigation and legal proceedings.
The arrests are the latest in a series of operations by Syrian security forces against Daesh remnants since transitional authorities came to power following the collapse of President Bashar Assad’s government in December 2024.
In late July, security forces arrested suspected Daesh members during coordinated raids in Aleppo and the nearby town of Al-Bab, uncovering warehouses containing explosives, improvised explosive devices and weapons, according to the Interior Ministry.
Earlier in July, security forces killed two Daesh militants while they were allegedly planting an improvised explosive device near the Sayyidah Zaynab area south of Damascus. Authorities said weapons and additional explosive devices were recovered and that the men were affiliated with Daesh.
The ministry has said Daesh exploited the security vacuum created by the collapse of the former regime’s security and military institutions to move fighters from the Syrian desert into urban areas and obtain weapons and explosives from abandoned stockpiles.
Although Daesh lost its last territorial foothold in Syria in 2019, the group has maintained a presence through sleeper cells and clandestine networks, particularly in northern Syria and the central desert.
Syrian authorities have intensified operations against the group in recent months, saying they have dismantled dozens of cells and arrested hundreds of suspected members.
The Interior Ministry has also accused Daesh of carrying out the June 2025 bombing of Mar Elias Church in Damascus, which killed 25 people and wounded 63, and of plotting attacks intended to inflame sectarian tensions, including an alleged plan targeting the Sayyidah Zaynab shrine.
