neutralizing an ISIS member poses questions about coordination between Centcom and the Syrian government

 On July 25, U.S. Central Command stated that it had killed a senior leader in the city of al-Bab, northeast of Aleppo, Syria.

Media sources, including Syria TV, reported that the raid was coordinated with government security forces, which blocked roads leading to the location with checkpoints, without any official statement from the Ministries of Interior or Defense regarding the operation.

According to the statement, CENTCOM forces raided a building in al-Bab, Aleppo Governorate, Syria, resulting in the death of a senior ISIS leader, Diaa Zoba’a Musleh al-Hardani, and his two sons, Abdullah Diaa al-Hardani and Abdulrahman Diaa Zoba’a al-Hardani. Three women and three children who were at the targeted site were not injured.

The statement mentioned that the targets had threatened coalition forces and the new Syrian government.

Old Coordination!

Media sources also reported that the coalition has been exchanging intelligence with the Syrian government, including thwarting an ISIS attempt to bomb the Sayyida Zainab shrine near the capital Damascus. The operation led to the arrest of those involved in this criminal act, according to the Syrian Ministry of Interior on January 11.

On June 23, ISIS successfully targeted the Mar Elias Church in Dweila, Damascus, killing twenty-two and injuring fifty-four others. The Syrian Ministry of Interior forces pursued and neutralized the remaining members of the cell after the bombing.

Previous Operations

It is worth noting that coalition forces were able to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Barisha village, northwest of Idlib, on October 26, 2019. At the time, the area was under the control of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, led by Ahmad al-Shar’a, whose forces did not intervene in the operation. This raised speculation about prior coordination, as HTS was hostile to ISIS and its intelligence services had been searching for a key figure in the area before the coalition’s operation.

An official statement from the CENTCOM commander said that al-Baghdadi was hiding in a tunnel when coalition forces confronted him, and he detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and two young children. (One of their images still haunts me to this day.)

last June the nominee for the coalition leadership stated before a congress committee, called Syrian president Shara'a a "vital partner in the fight against the group."