Syria announces capture of senior ISIS official near Manbij: What to know
Abu Jihad al-Muhajir is the highest-profile alleged Islamic State official captured by Syrian government forces since US troops withdrew from the country in April.
WASHINGTON — Syria’s government said on Tuesday that the country’s security forces captured the region’s top Islamic State official alive in a raid near Manbij in Aleppo province.
The operation led to the capture of Hamza Abdullah Mohammed, also known as Abu Jihad al-Muhajir, was carried out by Syria’s General Intelligence Service and Internal Security Forces with assistance from “international partners,” the Interior Ministry said.
The ministry described Al-Muhajir as the military leader of ISIS’ al-Sham province, which includes Syria, and prior to that, as the top ISIS commander in Idlib province.
Why it matters: Al-Muhajir is the highest-profile alleged ISIS official captured by Syrian government forces since US troops departed their outposts in the country in April.
The arrest signals that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government continues to work with the US military and intelligence services on keeping ISIS in check. Al-Muhajir's identity could not immediately be independently verified, but a US official speaking to Al-Monitor not for attribution affirmed the Syrian government's characterization of him as ISIS was accurate.
In June, a US airstrike near Deir Hassan in Syria’s northwest killed another alleged senior ISIS figure, Ali Husayn al-‘Ulaywi, US Central Command reported at the time.
US troops quietly packed up their gear and left their last remaining base in Syria in April, ending a decade of presence on the ground overseeing local militias in a joint campaign to destroy ISIS, which at its peak ruled over at least an estimated 8 million people.
US President Donald Trump repeatedly pressed for American troop withdrawals across his two administrations. The US military airlifted thousands of ISIS prisoners deemed "high risk" into Iraq early this year amid orders to depart the country. Skeptics of the US military's open-ended presence in Syria alleged the footprint left American soldiers exposed to aerial attacks by Iran and its local militias as well as insider attacks from jihadist-sympathetic individuals in Syria's post-Assad security forces.
What’s next: With the war against ISIS in the rearview mirror, CENTCOM has been rearranging its forces in the region to prepare for an extended conflict with Iran.
Know more: Last month, US troops evacuated their base at Erbil’s international airport amid an anticipated escalation in the US air campaign against the Islamic Republic, leading to criticism that they abandoned Kurdish partner forces in Iraq’s northern autonomous region.
Yet US intelligence continues to work with the Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish governments despite rising attacks from foreign states that have put pressure on those local actors, officials familiar with the cooperation say.
