ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Monday that the Islamic State (ISIS) has carried out more than 150 attacks in northeast Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime late last year.

“During the period following the fall of the Baath regime in Damascus on December 8, 2024, until September 20 of this year, [ISIS] cells carried out 153 attacks in northern and eastern Syria areas,” SDF spokesperson Abjar Dawood said, adding that the data indicates that the jihadists are attempting to “reorganize and expand the scope of their operations.”

The SDF has also carried out “70 operations, including three large-scale sweeping operations” against ISIS in that period, according to Dawood. The raids have killed at least six ISIS members and resulted in the arrests of 95 others.

At least 30 SDF fighters have been killed and 12 injured during that period, he added. 

Following their territorial defeat in 2019 after the battle of Baghouz, ISIS has rebranded “from a ‘state organization,’ to networks of cells and guerrilla warfare groups, increasing the frequency of local attacks, assassinations and covert recruitment operations,” according to the statement.

ISIS has ramped up its attacks against Kurdish-led forces since Assad’s fall in an attempt to take advantage of instability in the region. 

The Kurdish-led group has repeatedly warned of an ISIS resurgence in the wake of Assad’s ouster, with the group mainly operating from territory in the remote desert areas of Homs and Deir ez-Zor provinces.

ISIS took control of swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014, announcing its self-proclaimed caliphate with the Iraqi city of Mosul as its capital. They were territorially defeated with assistance from the US-led coalition forces in Syria by 2019.

The US-backed SDF functions as the de facto army of northeast Syria and currently controls around a quarter of the country’s territory.