Islamic State urges members to fight Syria's new authority

DAMASCUS,— The Islamic State IS/ISIS group on Saturday urged its members in Syria to confront the country’s new leadership, delivering its first audio message from spokesperson Abu Huzaifa al-Ansari in two years.

In the recording, posted online, al-Ansari said fighters should focus on “the new Syrian regime, with its secular government and national army,” and make it their “priority,” according to monitoring agencies that track extremist communications.

Al-Ansari’s previous message, in January 2024, called on supporters to attack Jews globally in retaliation for Israeli operations in Gaza.

The Islamic State said on Saturday that it carried out two attacks against Syrian government forces in northern and eastern Syria, signaling what the group described as a new phase in its campaign against the country’s leadership.

The militant group reported through its Dabiq news agency that it had targeted “an individual of the apostate Syrian regime” in Mayadin, located in Deir al-Zor province, using a pistol. The group also said it attacked two other regime personnel with machine guns in the northern city of Raqqa.

Since the removal of long-time leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Syria’s new authorities, whose past connections include Al-Qaeda-linked groups, have sought to distance themselves from their radical history and cultivate a more moderate image.

Last year, Syria joined the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State and has coordinated with international partners to target remaining cells, U.S. officials said.

The Islamic State seized large areas of Syria and Iraq in 2014, carrying out massacres and forcing Kurdish and Yazidi women and girls into sexual slavery.

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces declared the group defeated in 2017, and Kurdish forces in Syria proclaimed the loss of its territorial hold two years later.

Recent advances by Syrian government Islamist forces against Kurdish troops have raised concerns over the future of Islamic State detainees held in Kurdish-run facilities.

Washington has moved more than 5,700 Islamic State detainees from Syrian camps to prisons in Iraq, officials said.

A camp that formerly housed relatives of Islamic State fighters has been emptied. Local sources said residents either were relocated by Syrian authorities or left voluntarily.

(With files from AFP | Reuters)