DEIR EZ-ZOR, Syria — Backed by the US-led international coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are conducting near-daily air raids against Islamic State (IS) cells, which in turn carry out assassinations and bombings against the SDF and civilians who collaborate with it in the northern and eastern provinces of Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah.

IS sleeper cells have hung leaflets on the gates of mosques, vowing to punish those who cooperate with the SDF. The war on IS is supposed to be over, but the battles are far from finished; September has provided numerous examples of this.

On Sept. 24, the Institute for the Study of War warned that IS "is preparing to free its loyal fighters and followers from prisons and displacement camps across Syria and Iraq." ISW referred to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's call Sept. 16 for his supporters to practice jihad, stressing the need to liberate his fighters and their families held by the SDF. Baghdadi ordered his fighters to target security people, investigators and judges at prisons where other IS fighters are held.

Meanwhile, the SDF said in a Sept. 21 statement that it had arrested three people suspected of being part of an IS cell responsible for the assassination of Legislative Council co-Chairman Marwan al-Fateh last year. IS was also blamed for a Sept. 17 explosion at a Kurdish security building in Diban, though no casualties were reported. Also that day, an official in the SDF's Deir ez-Zor military council and three of his bodyguards were injured after an explosive device planted in his car by unknown individuals went off near al-Omer oil field.