Islamic State claims attack on SDF in Manbij, first since territorial defeat
An attack on the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria’s Manbij was claimed on Tuesday by the Islamic State group (IS), just days after the SDF declared a territorial victory over the militant group.
Gunmen opened fire on SDF fighters at a checkpoint at the entrance of the flashpoint city near the Turkish border around midnight on Monday, killing seven, according the Manbij Military Council.
The Manbij Military Council, which is affiliated with the SDF, has held the city since it was taken from IS in 2016.
On Tuesday, the militant group claimed the attack on its social media channels.
"The caliphate's soldiers attacked a checkpoint... west of Manbij city last night," it said.
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'After the victory over IS, we have entered the phase of sleeper cells'
- Sherfan Darwish, Manbij Military Council
Manbij Military Council spokesman Sherfan Darwish speculated it could be a revenge attack following the fall of Baghouz, IS’s last redoubt in eastern Syria.
"After the victory over IS, we have entered the phase of sleeper cells," Darwish told the AFP news agency. "These sleeper cells are being activated and carrying out attacks but we will foil their operations."
The attack appears to be the first of its kind since the SDF declared a territorial victory over IS last week.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, it was also the bloodiest in the city since a suicide attack that killed 19, including four US service people, in a restaurant in January. That attack was also claimed by IS.
The SDF and IS’s other enemies are bracing themselves for a new type of combat with the militant group, which has vowed to carry out attacks using sleeper cells.
Thousands of IS fighters and their families have fled Baghouz in recent weeks as its defences crumbled, most being picked up by the SDF and interned in camps in Syria’s north.
It is not known how many slipped through and are now operating clandestinely.
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