ISIS sleeper cell attack kills one SDF fighter in Syria’s Deir al-Zor

A car bomb in the Syrian province of Deir al-Zor on Friday killed a fighter from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an SDF spokesperson confirmed.

According to Mustafa Bali, the head of the SDF press office, a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) belonging to the Islamic State “martyred” an SDF fighter.

“ISIS still has a strong presence among [the] society in the area, and this can only be countered by an effective military cooperation between the SDF and the global coalition,” Bali wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), meanwhile, reported on Friday that a car bomb in Theban town in the eastern region of Deir al-Zor’s countryside killed two members of the SDF.

Elsewhere, another SDF fighter died from his injuries on Saturday after unknown gunmen believed to be members of the Islamic State shot him in al-Busayrah, a town in eastern Deir al-Zor province.

Despite the SDF and the US-led coalition announcing the defeat of the extremist group’s so-called caliphate on March 23, Islamic State sleeper cell attacks continue in Arab majority areas that were liberated from the militants.

Read the full article and more in Kurdistan 24.