ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said late Thursday that its forces arrested three alleged Islamic State (ISIS) members during an operation in Rojava’s Hasakah, after the suspects opened fire on the Kurdish-led forces.

“Our forces have concluded an operation to pursue cells affiliated with the ISIS terrorist organization, which had launched an armed attack on our forces in the neighborhoods of Al-Ghwayran and Al-Nashwa earlier this evening, using medium and light weapons,” the SDF said in a statement on Thursday.

“The operation resulted in the arrest of three members of those cells,” it added. 

A source confirmed to The New Region on Thursday that SDF chief Mazloum Abdi is in Damascus for talks with the Syrian government, though no official statements regarding any meetings have been released. 

Abdi previously travelled to the Syrian capital on Tuesday to discuss a ceasefire between Kurdish-led forces and Syrian state factions and the bringing of the former under the latter's auspices under an integration agreement.

Damascus has launched a brutal offensive against Rojava in a bid to secure Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s vision of a united, centralized Syria, despite the country’s marginalized minorities repeatedly calling for federalism.

The assault has left hundreds dead and forced Kurdish-led forces, who defeated ISIS in Syria, to cede swathes of territory and withdraw to Hasaka province, with the attacking Syrian forces violating ceasefires, committing human rights violations, and possibly war crimes in their offensive.

The ongoing clashes resulted in the breaching of several detention facilities in northern Syria housing veteran ISIS fighters, with a large number of detainees reported to have been released. Both sides have accused the other of the security breaches.

The SDF has for years been in charge of many camps and prisons holding ISIS affiliates and family members in Rojava, after the Kurdish-led and US-backed force fought the lion’s share of the battle and territorially defeated ISIS in Syria in 2019.

The Kurdish-led Rojava administration has repeatedly warned of “real danger” with the factions, harboring an extremist Islamist ideology, attacking the Kurdish-led forces and taking over the prisons. The SDF has also released footage purporting to show the factions releasing ISIS detainees.