The Syrian Ministry of Interior announced that it had dismantled cells affiliated with the Islamic State group and arrested a leader in the organization in southern Syria.
The ministry said specialized units at the Interior Ministry, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Service, arrested Firas al-Dagher, a leader in the organization, and several officials responsible for assassinations and financing, during a series of security operations that led to the dismantling of several cells affiliated with the group in southern Syria.
The ministry said today, Thursday, 9 July, that investigations showed al-Dagher had risen through leadership positions inside the organization, including the so-called al-Jaidour Sector and the Western Region, before being assigned as the so-called governor of Lebanon and Palestine, in addition to working as a personal escort for the organization’s caliph.
According to the ministry, investigations revealed that the cells were involved in assassination and robbery operations targeting several goldsmiths in Daraa governorate (southern Syria), and in selling stolen gold to secure funding for the organization’s activities.
The detainees also confessed to assassinating two Interior Ministry members, carrying out an assassination attempt inside a barbershop that killed a civilian, and monitoring a man and his wife before eliminating them.
The ministry confirmed that legal reports were filed against those arrested and that they were referred to the competent judiciary to complete legal procedures.
The Islamic State group continues to claim responsibility for sporadic attacks, most of them against government forces, and periodically mobilizes its supporters against Syria’s new rule.
235 Islamic State Members
The Syrian Ministry of Interior had announced the arrest of 235 members of the Islamic State group over three months, as part of operations it said resulted from General Intelligence efforts to pursue the group’s cells.
The ministry said on 8 June that the Counterterrorism Department dismantled seven cells and thwarted seven operations, noting that the detainees were spread across several governorates, including 71 people in Deir Ezzor (eastern Syria) and 35 in Aleppo (northern Syria), while 198 of them were Syrians and 37 were foreigners.
It added that the operations resulted in the seizure of weapons, tools, and equipment it said were used in the organization’s activities, including 25 weapons, 22 devices prepared for detonation, and 67 electronic devices.
Reasons for the Decline in the Group’s Operations
A report by the Middle East Institute, issued on 9 June, discussed the decline in Islamic State operations in Syria over the past period.
The institute said the number of the organization’s attacks fell by 17% in the months following the military losses of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against Syrian government forces, from January to April 2026, then declined further to 67% after the departure of US forces, from April to June 2026.
The institute said the organization carried out only eight attacks across Syria in May, killing four people. That was below the average number of attacks it carried out in 2025, which totaled 29 attacks and killed an average of 15 people per month. It also represented the largest decline in the number of attacks and deaths since the organization emerged in Syria in 2013.
The institute said 90% of attacks in 2025 took place in areas controlled by the SDF, through the exploitation of growing anger among Arab tribes toward SDF-affiliated authorities, according to the Middle East Institute.
The Group Changed Its Strategy
Researcher in Islamist groups Ahmad Abazeid told Enab Baladi in an earlier interview, commenting on the nature of Islamic State operations in the current phase, that the organization radically changed its strategy after losing its last stronghold in al-Baghouz (Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria) in 2019.
Abazeid said the organization “moved to a different model, working as small hidden cells in each sector, while maintaining organizational cohesion and security vetting of members.”
Abazeid said the organization’s strategy after the fall of the Assad regime did not change much in terms of method, “but it has become active in broader areas, while facing greater threats of security exposure than before, as shown by Syrian Ministry of Interior operations that announced the arrest of several ISIS cells .
The post Syrian Interior Ministry Says It Dismantled ISIS Cells in Southern Syria appeared first on Enab Baladi.