ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Thursday that their units struck several sites in Raqqa used by the Islamic State (ISIS) to launch drones against SDF positions, accusing factions aligned with the Damascus government of facilitating the attacks.
“Our forces within the Syrian Democratic Forces are engaging a number of sites that ISIS terrorists directly used to launch unmanned aerial vehicles toward our positions in the Ghanem al-Ali desert east of Raqqa,” the SDF said in an early Thursday statement. It added that the area has faced repeated attacks this week “by factions affiliated with the Damascus government, coinciding with ISIS activity.”
According to the SDF, documented footage shows ISIS using those locations as drone-launch bases, “confirming direct coordination between several Damascus-Government factions and ISIS terrorists in targeting our military positions and endangering the security of the region.”
The Kurdish-led forces said their operations aim to disrupt the sources of the attacks and strengthen defensive lines, reaffirming their “full commitment to the legitimate defense of the regions” of northeast Syria (Rojava).
Hours earlier, the SDF reported shooting down two ISIS-operated drones late Wednesday, launched from Damascus-affiliated faction positions along the same eastern Raqqa front. The drones were identified as a Matrice M30 and an offensive FPV type.
In a separate statement, the SDF said its technical teams analyzed data from the M30’s memory card after retrieving the wreckage, determining it had been operated by “a group of foreign militants affiliated with the ISIS terrorist organization, stationed at positions held by Damascus government-affiliated factions, directly opposite the defense lines” of the SDF.
“These findings conclusively confirm the involvement of several factions of the Damascus government in cooperating with foreign ISIS-affiliated elements,” the SDF added, warning that such coordination enables ISIS to rebuild its capabilities “in an even more dangerous manner.”
The SDF said it will release images and materials recovered from the drones and called on the US-led Coalition to Defeat ISIS to investigate, warning that “ignoring these violations undermines regional security and enables ISIS to regroup and threaten civilians and communities.”
The SDF is the de facto military force of Rojava and the main on-the-ground ally of the US-led coalition in Syria. ISIS was declared territorially defeated in 2019 but continues to wage an insurgency, seeking to exploit instability that has followed the fall of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in December.