During a check on a connecting road between Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, forces from the Asayîş (internal security forces) seized various weapons and ammunition in a truck. The weapons were apparently intended for sleeper cells of the Islamic State.

The Asayîş officials had pulled the truck as it was traveling near Raqqa and subjected it to an inspection, according to a statement issued on Sunday.

The driver said that he had only loaded cotton. When checking the driver’s cab, the Internal Security forces found a pistol. When asked, the man and his companion confessed that there were more weapons hidden in the truck.

The weapons and ammunition then appeared in cotton sacks on the trailer of the vehicle: two Kalashnikov machine guns (AK-47), twenty matching 30-round magazines and around 1,000 rounds of extra ammunition, a hand grenade and fifteen separate impact detonators, an RPG-7 anti-tank rifle and twelve matching grenades, and a universal machine gun of the MG PK type as well as more than 2,500 projectiles in caliber 7.62 × 54 mm R.

The Asayîş seized all the military equipment and arrested the two men. Proceedings were initiated against them on suspicion of supporting a terrorist organization and violating the weapons law. The Justice Council of Northern and Eastern Syria will take over the further investigation.

ISIS cells still active

In 2014, ISIS took control over large parts of Iraq and Syria and installed a reign of terror. The jihadist militia declared a “caliphate” across state borders. In August 2014, ISIS committed genocide and femicide in the main Yazidi settlement area of Shengal in north-west Iraq. More than 10,000 people were murdered. ISIS was driven out of Iraq in 2017 and out of Syria two years later. Despite the dismantling of the terrorist militia’s territorial control in March 2019, ISIS sleeper cells are still active and are carrying out attacks. Shortly before the end of the year, a high-ranking member of the terrorist group was killed in a joint operation by the SDF, Asayîş and the international anti-ISIS coalition in the Hol camp.