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Islamic State claimed work connected Saturday (February 21, 2026) for 2 attacks targeting Syrian Army unit successful bluish and eastbound Syria, arsenic the militant radical signalled what it described arsenic a caller signifier of operations against the country’s leadership.
The militant radical said connected its Dabiq quality agency that it had targeted “an idiosyncratic of the apostate Syrian regime” successful the metropolis of Mayadin successful Deir al-Zor state using a pistol, and attacked 2 different unit with instrumentality guns successful the bluish metropolis of Raqqa.
Syria’s Defence Ministry said successful a connection that a Syrian Army soldier and a civilian were killed connected Saturday (February 21) by “unknown assailants.” A subject root told Reuters the worker belonged to the Army’s 42nd Division.
The attacks travel amid a crisp escalation by IS against Syria’s enactment nether President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a erstwhile al-Qaeda person who broke with the radical successful 2016 earlier starring a conjugation of Islamist factions that overthrew President Bashar al-Assad astatine the end of 2024.
On Saturday (February 21) evening, IS released a recorded connection by its spokesperson, Abu Hudhayfa al-Ansari, who said Syria had “moved from Iranian concern to Turkish-American occupation.”
The radical said it had begun a “new signifier of operations” successful Syria, describing Sharaa arsenic a “watchdog” of the global conjugation and vowing that his destiny would beryllium nary antithetic from that of Assad.
Sharaa signed Syria’s accession to the planetary conjugation to decision IS during a sojourn to the U.S. past November, erstwhile helium met President Donald Trump.
The latest incidents travel 2 days aft IS claimed work for another onslaught successful Deir al-Zor that killed a subordinate of the Interior Ministry’s interior information forces and wounded another.
Several societal media accounts and Telegram channels supporting IS person in caller hours called for intensified attacks utilizing motorcycles and firearms.
IS has carried retired six attacks against Syrian authorities targets since the autumn of Assad.
A study by the U.N. Office of Counter-Terrorism released past week said Sharaa and 2 elder furniture ministers had been targeted in 5 foiled assassination attempts by IS.
