Self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived in Washington on Sunday, following the completion of what Syrian security officials claimed was a large security operation targeting ISIS cells in the country. Sharaa, the former Al-Qaeda and ISIS commander, will meet with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday for talks regarding a security deal with Israel and the lifting of the Caesar sanctions.
On Saturday, Syria’s Interior Ministry claimed it had launched a major operation against ISIS cells, including 61 raids and 71 arrests in Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Homs, and Damascus countryside, as part of “ongoing national efforts to combat terrorism and protect public safety,” state media SANA claimed.
“The operation, based on intelligence gathered through weeks of surveillance, led to the dismantling of several networks, the arrest of multiple suspects, and the seizure of materials linked to terrorist activity,” SANA added.
The ministry released photos and videos claiming to show multiple raids targeting ISIS cells on Saturday.
However, several photos and videos showed clear signs of staging, indicating the raids are fake and part of a public relations push to improve the image of Syria’s extremist-led government and promote the lifting of sanctions ahead of Sharaa’s visit to the White House.
Photos from the raids published on the SANA website show printed papers showing the ISIS logo carefully placed on top of explosives and weapons allegedly seized in the raids, as well as action shots of security force members running in the street.
State TV Alekhbariah broadcast videos showing journalists casually filming Syrian security forces as they approach the entrance of homes in which members of ISIS the cells are allegedly hiding. In one video, security forces are shown knocking on the front door of a home, as if they are paying a visit to residents.
The faces of the ISIS members allegedly detained in the raids are carefully concealed by pulling their shirts over their heads as they are taken to the security forces’ vehicles.
The Syrian government has carried out several fake raids against ISIS cells since coming to power in December, including after allegedly foiling an ISIS attack on the Sayyida Zaynab Shrine in southern Damascus in January, and following a suicide bombing at the Mar Elias Church in Damascus in June.
It was later revealed that it was likely members of Sharaa’s General Security Service (GSS) who carried out the suicide attack that killed 25 worshipers and injured 52 more at the church in the Duweila district of Damascus.
The logic behind targeting Christians and blaming the attack on ISIS was explained by a former founder of Al-Qaeda in Syria (Nusra Front), Saleh al‑Hamwi.
While promoting the narrative that ISIS was responsible for the Mar Elias attack, he stated on the social media site X that, as a result, “The international community will rally around [the Syrian government], it will receive significant support, and it will join the international coalition against ISIS.”
وحدات مشتركة من الاستخبارات العامة والأمن الداخلي تنفذ حملة مداهمات في منطقة السفيرة بريف حلب تستهدف خلايا تابعة لتنظيم داعش#الإخبارية_السورية pic.twitter.com/uJD8pvwyRU
— الإخبارية السورية (@AlekhbariahSY) November 8, 2025
He added that the government was releasing ISIS leaders from prisons in Idlib and exploiting “the ISIS file internationally in exchange for lifting sanctions.”
The US and Israel have a long history of supporting Al-Qaeda linked groups such as the Sharaa’s Nusra Front and ISIS in Syria as part of the CIA-led operation known as Timber Sycamore. While claiming to oppose ISIS publicly and carry out airstrikes against the group, the US military was covertly arming ISIS to help it take over territory in Iraq and Syria, including in Mosul in June 2014.
Within weeks after Assad’s fall, US mainstream journalists were advising ‘rebels’ who fought on behalf of Jolani/Sharaa that ISIS patches are not palatable for Western audiences…
Video footage shows journalist James Longman advising rebels in Damascus, Syria, about the ISIS logo on their uniforms.
One of the rebels attempts to explain that the emblem does not represent ISIS, while the man wearing it is seen quickly removing the symbol. pic.twitter.com/qhZpkJiozJ
— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) December 16, 2024
Washington’s Kurdish ally in Iraq, Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), covertly helped ISIS carry out the genocide of Yezidis in Sinjar in western Iraq two months later.
The US military also protected convoys of ISIS trucks transporting oil from Syria across the border to areas of Iraqi Kurdistan under Barzani’s control, for eventual transport to Turkiye.
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