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ISIS cells have attacked a key checkpoint of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) west of the northern Syrian city of Manbij, the terrorist group’s news agency, Amaq, reported on March 26.
“Nine personnel [of the SDF] were killed as a result, their weapons and ammunition were captured, thank God,” Amaq’s report reads.
A spokesman for the SDF’s Manbij Military Council (MMC), Sharafan Darwish, confirmed that ISIS cells attacked a checkpoint of the council in the outskirt of Manbij. However, he told the France-Press Agency (AFP) that only seven fighters of the MMC were killed in the surprise attack.
ISIS cells are highly active inside and around Manbij. On January 15, a suicide bomber of the terrorist group blew himself up in the city’s center killing four U.S. service members. Later on March 9, ISIS cells detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) near a US-led coalition convoy on a road leading to Manbij.
The SDF’s security forces and the US-led coalition conducted dozens of security operations against ISIS cells in Manbij and its countryside over the last few months. However, the terrorist group’s influence is apparently growing.
