The Media Center of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) released a statement providing the latest information about the “Operation Retaliation for Raqqa Martyrs” launched yesterday (January 25) with the Internal Security Forces alongside the formation of a joint operations room backed by International Coalition airpower.

The SDF statement released on Thursday includes the following:

“During the first hours of Operation Retaliation for Raqqa Martyrs, the joint forces enabled by the Coalition’s airpower, arrested 68 ISIS terrorists, including the Wali (governor) of the so-called Wilayah (province) al-Raqqa, who was in charge of leading the ISIS cells including the so-called Khalid bin Al-Walid Battalion, which was responsible for the terrorist attack on the Internal Security Forces center in the al-Dariyah neighborhood on December 26. The arrested terrorists were sheltering in residential areas and people's farms.

According to initial interrogations, the terrorist Atallah al-Maythan confessed to his involvement in planning and leading terrorist acts, extorting the populace to finance ISIS, and facilitating communication mechanisms between terrorist cells.

Upon the request of local notables and tribal leaders and for the second day in a row, the joint forces continued the sweep operations on the ground, searching for potential terrorist hideouts. This morning, the forces started raiding al-Karamal town, 20 km east of Raqqa city, al-Mansoura town, west of Raqqa, and the towns of Sarrin and Al-Jarniyah.

During the first run of the ongoing operations in the three mentioned areas, the joint forces arrested eight terrorists, two of whom tried to flee towards areas outside the SDF control on the other side of the Euphrates River after shooting at the joint forces. No injuries were recorded.

Last night, our Syrian Democratic Forces and Internal Security Forces launched large-scale security operations and formed a joint operations room named “Operation Retaliation for Raqqa Martyrs” backed by airpower by the International Coalition, aiming at targeting the terrorist cells and their dangerous operatives, destroying channels of communication between them, uprooting their potential hideouts and drying up the enabling environment, primarily the facilitators and recruitment networks.”