ISIS Threatens al-Sharaa… Can the Group Still Operate in Syria?

24th April 2025

2 minutes read

ISIS Threatens al-Sharaa… Can the Group Still Operate in Syria?

On April 20, 2025, ISIS released a video statement threatening Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa over his intention to join the international coalition against terrorism. This came after the United States formally requested the Syrian government to participate in counterterrorism efforts.

The statement raised questions about the group’s actual ability to carry out its threats, especially considering the significant political and military transformations Syria has undergone since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8, 2024. These changes have affected the dynamics of extremist groups, including ISIS.

Al-Majalla magazine pointed out that the group may attempt to exploit the instability caused by the regime’s collapse to bolster its presence and reactivate its sleeper cells in various areas.

In a detailed article, the magazine reviewed ISIS’s activities from December 2024 to April 2025, focusing on the group’s operations, its evolving strategies, the challenges it has faced, and the impact of the U.S. withdrawal on its capacity to carry out threats against the Syrian government.

According to the report, ISIS took advantage of the security vacuum in the Syrian desert (stretching across Homs, Hama, Raqqa, and Deir ez-Zor) to intensify its attacks. This region has remained a safe haven for the group since it lost its territories in 2019, thanks to its rugged terrain and difficulty to control.

In December 2024, several notable attacks were recorded, including one in southern Raqqa that killed two people, and another targeting the Shaer gas field, resulting in the death of the facility’s director. Reports indicated that ISIS carried out approximately 100 attacks against Iran-backed militias, 300 against the former regime’s forces, and another 300 against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2024, with a similar pace continuing in unstable areas after December.

On December 11, 2024, the new Syrian government announced it had foiled a planned attack on the Sayyida Zainab shrine in Damascus and arrested an ISIS cell. On December 16, 2024, U.S. Central Command carried out airstrikes that killed 12 ISIS members, including leaders.

On December 19, another senior ISIS figure was killed in Deir ez-Zor, and a later strike targeted a weapons truck belonging to the group. In January 2025, the U.S. supported an SDF operation that led to the arrest of an attack cell leader. On February 16, 2025, the new Syrian government announced the arrest of “Abu al-Hareth al-Iraqi,” accused of planning attacks, including a failed plot on the Sayyida Zainab shrine and the assassination of a leader in Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.

The magazine concluded that although ISIS has managed to carry out notable attacks, sustained military pressure from the international coalition and the new Syrian government, along with their coordination and plans to integrate the SDF into the government, as well as the group’s internal challenges, have all contributed to curbing its capacity to expand or execute threats.

Nonetheless, the greatest challenge remains preventing ISIS from regrouping, especially amid Syria’s worsening economic conditions and international sanctions that hinder the state’s ability to enhance its counterterrorism capabilities.