DAMASCUS/ ISTANBUL

Syria’s Interior Ministry said Tuesday that security forces had arrested an ISIS (Daesh) cell in the Damascus countryside.

“An ISIS terrorist cell was arrested in the town of Jadidat al-Shibani in the Barada Valley, in the countryside of Damascus,” a ministry source told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), without providing further details.

On Dec. 13, three Americans, including two service members and one civilian, were killed and three US troops wounded in an ISIS ambush in the central city of Palmyra, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM).

Syria formally joined the US-led international coalition against ISIS on Nov. 12. The coalition was formed in 2014 and has carried out military operations against the terrorist group in Syria and Iraq, though Damascus was not previously a member.

The new Syrian administration has been working to tighten security conditions nationwide since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024.