ISIS Declares War on Syrian President Al Shara and His US-Backed Government

Illustration of ISIS. (Wikimedia Commons/VOA)

JAKARTA - The ISIS group on Sunday declared war on the Government of President Ahmad Al Shara in Syria, calling it illegitimate because of its ties with the United States and Turkey.

ISIS spokesman Abu Hudhayfa Al Ansari said in a recorded message that Syria had entered a "new chapter" of the struggle, calling Al Shara a "new tyrant" whose fate "will not be better" than that of former leader Bashar Al Assad.

The former president and his supporters from Iran "were quickly replaced" by a regime that "subordinates" to Washington, the spokesman said, launching The National (23/2).

Al Ansari said Al Shara had become "entangled with the Turkish and Western devil".

The escalation comes at an uncertain time as Syrian authorities retake control of vast desert areas of the country that contain pockets of the group's support.

The region, which includes Raqqa and Deir Ezzor provinces, as well as most of Hasakah, has been held for nearly a decade by Kurdish-led armed groups known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

In November, Syria joined the US-led anti-ISIS coalition when Washington almost completely abandoned the SDF.

Al Shara turned against ISIS in the middle of his uprising, which ended when he led the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group in an 11-day offensive that ousted the Assad regime in December 2024.

Al Ansari described the 11-day operation as a Turkish plot "directed" by Washington, placing Al Shara as a "puppet" leader whose government had waged war against "believers".

"The new Syrian regime, with its secular government and national army, is kafir and murtad," said Al Ansari, calling on ISIS supporters to "strive to fight them relentlessly".

ISIS illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Aharan_kotogo)

Syrian security forces have launched several major operations against ISIS across the country, killing and arresting dozens of its members. The extremist group has pockets of strength mainly in the central Badia region, and near the border with Iraq to the east.

Since the fall of the Assad regime, many ISIS members operating in the Badia region have returned to their hometowns near major cities such as Aleppo, Hama, and Damascus, regional security officials say.

ISIS claimed responsibility for two weekend attacks on military personnel in the north and east of the country. The group said on the social media Dabiq, they had attacked "an individual from the apostate Syrian regime" in the city of Mayadin, Deir Ezzor Province using a pistol, and attacked two other personnel with an automatic rifle in the city of Raqqa in the north.

The Syrian Defense Ministry said a Syrian soldier and a civilian were killed on Saturday by "unknown assailants". Several social media accounts and Telegram channels supporting ISIS in recent hours have called for increased attacks using motorbikes.

The US itself is known to have launched several attacks on ISIS positions in Syria in recent months. Some of them in response to an attack in Palmyra that killed three Americans in December, carried out by a Syrian officer who was described by authorities as an ISIS member.

The government's takeover of central and eastern territory from the SDF comes as the US reduces its presence in Syria, leaving behind at least two major bases.

Previously, Washington relied on the SDF as the main ground component in the war in Syria against ISIS. However, the US has supported the government's takeover of most of the SDF's territory in Syria, and moved more than 5,000 ISIS prisoners in the area to Iraq.

Many prisoners, some of whom are suspected of having links to ISIS, have escaped from refugee camps and detention centers in the past month as control shifted between the SDF and government forces.

Iraq signaled on Sunday it was not willing to host ISIS suspects transferred indefinitely.

"Their presence in Iraq is temporary and they will be returned to their home countries," Iraqi official Saeed Al Jayashi was quoted as saying by official media, saying the detainees were from more than 67 countries.