Syria’s Interior Ministry reported that security forces engaged in combat with a suspected ISIL cell during an operation in Rankous, a town in the western Damascus countryside. The clash occurred on Thursday morning when personnel moved against the group, which allegedly refused to surrender and initiated gunfire. According to official statements, five members of the suspected cell were killed during the exchange, while six others were apprehended. Military equipment including weapons and explosive devices were recovered from the location.
Casualties among the security forces included two killed and five wounded personnel. Eyewitness accounts provided to news organizations indicated the confrontation lasted approximately two to three hours beginning around 6am local time. Some of the injured security personnel sustained serious wounds. Local residents offered differing accounts of the group’s size, suggesting roughly nine members were present, with two confirmed killed and two others managing to leave the area before the operation concluded.
The raid represents part of a broader governmental effort to eliminate ISIL networks operating within Syrian territory. Earlier this month, authorities reported dismantling additional cells in the Houla region of Homs province and disrupting plots against religious sites and military patrols. In related operations, security services arrested Khaled Raed Birouni, identified as a high-ranking military commander for the organization in Homs, in the town of Hujaira. Officials attributed responsibility for a December 2025 mosque bombing in Wadi al-Dhahab that resulted in eight deaths and 18 injuries to this individual and his associates.
ISIL continues to pose a security threat within Syria, with attacks historically concentrated on vehicles and personnel carriers used by security forces, though civilian targets have also been struck. Syria joined an international coalition of 90 nations in November focused on combating the organization, six years following the military defeat of ISIL territorial holdings in the country’s northeastern regions under Kurdish-led forces.
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