Syria says key ISIL leader captured near Damascus

Syria says key ISIL leader Taha al-Zoubi captured near Damascus Syrian officials confirm the arrest of ISIL leader Taha al-Zoubi in a security operation near Damascus. Syria’s Ministry of Interior has announced the arrest of Taha al-Zoubi, a leading figure in the ISIL (ISIS) group, in the Damascus countryside, the country’s SANA news agency reported. The report said a “tightly executed security operation” was carried out that led to the arrest of al-Zoubi, adding that “a suicide belt and a military weapon were seized in his possession”. SANA quoted Brigadier General Ahmad al-Dalati, head of internal security in the Damascus countryside, as saying the raid targeted an ISIL hideout in Maadamiya, southwest of Damascus, and was carried out “in cooperation” with an anti-ISIL alliance that includes the United States-led coalition fighting the group. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has not publicly confirmed the operation. Al-Dalati said al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tibiya, served as the group’s “wali”,or governor, of Damascus and that several alleged aides were also detained. The official added that the arrest dealt a “crippling blow” to ISIL networks in the capital region and showed the “readiness of the security apparatus”. “We send a clear message to anyone who dares to engage in the project of terrorism or lend support to ISIS: The hand of justice will reach them wherever they are,” al-Dalati said. ISIL, which views the new government in Damascus as illegitimate, has mainly concentrated its activities against Kurdish forces in the north. At its peak, ISIL ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom, spanning across Iraq and Syria, with Raqqa in the latter being the capital of the armed group’s self-declared “caliphate”. The group was notorious for its brutality, carrying out massacres of Syrians and Iraqis and beheadings of foreign captives. ISIL was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but its fighters and cadres of armed group members still carry out deadly attacks in both countries and elsewhere, including in Africa and Afghanistan.

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