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The threat of terrorism remains high in Syria’s northern and northeastern regions, Igor Sirotkin, the deputy director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and chief of staff of Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee, warned on June 20.
Speaking during a high-level conference of heads of anti-terrorist organizations at the United Nations, Sirotkin warned that terrorists can still move across the Syrian-Iraqi border with much freedom.
“Despite the military defeat suffered by international terrorism in its attempts to create a quasi-state formation – a caliphate – in the Middle East, the situation there remains tense, primarily in the north and northeast of Syria,” Sirotkin said, according to TASS. “The high permeability of the Syrian-Iraqi border enables the militants to move freely and replenish material and manpower resources.”
The Russian security chief said that the most dangerous terrorists were foreigners who gained much combat experience in hot areas in Syria and Iraq.
“First of all, this is true of the African continent, especially its western part. The Maghreb and Sahel territories are turning into the epicenter of the Islamist terrorist threat: armed terrorist groups are expanding their zones of influence, creating a real danger of reincarnation of the Islamic State in the form of an ‘African caliphate’.”
Much of the northern Syrian governorate of Idlib and its surrounding remain under the control of al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other smaller terrorist groups. The Turkish military maintains a large presence in the governorate. However, it does not intervene with the operations of the group.
In the northern countryside of the neighboring Aleppo governorate, both HTS and ISIS are active in Turkish-occupied areas.
ISIS, however, remain the most active in the northeastern governorates of Raqqa, al-Hsakah and Deir Ezzor, in the areas occupied by the Turkish military as well as in the territory held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the United States-led coalition.
The terrorist group also maintains a presence within the 55-kilometer no-fly zone the U.S. keeps around its garrison in the southeastern area of al-Tanf. Last month, Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, accused the U.S. of training ISIS terrorists in the garrison.
The lack of any real coordination against these terrorist groups and the illegitimate military presence of both Turkey and the U.S. in northern and northeastern Syria will likely continue to destabilize these regions for the long term.
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