The attacker in Syria who killed three US citizens recently joined Syria's new internal security force and is suspected of having ties to IS (the Islamic State group is considered terrorist and banned in Russia).
The man who carried out an attack in Syria that killed three US citizens was hired into Syria's new internal security agency just two months ago, reports say. AP News. A Syrian official said he was later transferred to another position due to suspicion of having ties to the extremist group ISIS.
As Al-Baba noted, the country's authorities were forced to urgently recruit staff due to staff shortages after the unexpected success of last year's opposition offensive, which toppled Bashar al-Assad's government. “We are shocked to have taken control of all of Syria for 11 days and this imposes great responsibility on security and governance issues,” he emphasized.
The attacker was among 5,000 recruits to a newly formed internal security unit in the Badia desert region, where remnants of IS are still active. The agency's leadership recently suspected that the unit had an informant passing information to ISIS and began vetting all recruits in the area.
The investigation drew attention to the man who later carried out the attack, but they decided to continue monitoring him to find out if he was directly involved with the ISIS network. As a precaution, he was transferred to guard equipment at the base, away from leadership and alliance patrols.
Authorities acknowledged the incident was a “major security failure,” but al-Baba noted that security has seen more successes than failures in the year since Assad's fall. After the shooting, the Syrian army and internal security forces conducted a major raid in the Badiya area and destroyed several suspected IS affiliates.
Let us recall, according to the Pentagon, two American soldiers and an American civilian interpreter was killed Three more American soldiers were injured in an attack Saturday near the Syrian city of Palmyra.
