DAMASCUS, Syria — The Islamic State group said it carried out two shootings Saturday targeting Syrian army personnel in the eastern city of Mayadin and the northern city of Raqqa, as Damascus reported a soldier and a civilian killed in what it called attacks by unknown assailants, Feb. 22, 2026.
The claims, paired with a new audio message urging supporters to intensify violence, highlight how Islamic State attacks are testing Syrian army operations and forcing security planners to stretch Syrian army operations across a wider front.
Syrian army operations, Islamic State attacks: what was reported
Syrian army officials said a Syrian soldier and a civilian were killed Saturday. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for separate gun attacks in Mayadin, in Deir al-Zor province, and in Raqqa, a city that was once the militants’ de facto capital in Syria. A Reuters report Saturday said a military source identified the soldier as a member of the army’s 42nd Division.
While the Syrian government did not publicly attribute Saturday’s killings to a specific group, the incident fits a pattern of hit-and-run Islamic State attacks that has intensified in eastern Syria since the end of 2024, when President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s coalition overthrew Bashar Assad, according to Reuters.
Two days earlier, Islamic State attacks in Deir al-Zor killed one member of Syria’s interior ministry security forces and wounded another, Reuters reported, as the group sought to exploit shifting control lines and persistent security gaps.
Islamic State attacks and the ‘new phase’ message
In a recorded statement released Saturday, Islamic State spokesman Abu Huzaifa al-Ansari denounced Sharaa and urged followers to attack Jewish and Western interests, according to the Associated Press. The message was the first major audio release from the group in months and framed Syria’s political transition as an opportunity for renewed insurgent violence.
Reuters said Islamic State described the attacks as the start of a “new phase of operations” aimed at Syria’s current leadership. Syria joined the global coalition to defeat Islamic State late last year, a step officials have said was meant to strengthen counterterrorism coordination.
A U.N. report underscores the risk that Islamic State attacks could shift from ambushes to more targeted plots. The report said Sharaa, Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani were the targets of five foiled assassination attempts over the past year, Al Jazeera reported.
Why Syrian army operations are under pressure
Syrian army operations in the east and north have expanded as Damascus has reasserted control over areas that shifted hands during the transition and subsequent security reshuffling. Reuters has reported that government forces have moved into parts of the northeast previously held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, including detention sites holding Islamic State suspects — a shift that adds new burdens for Syrian army operations.
In practice, that wider footprint can create openings for small cells to move, recruit and stage Islamic State attacks in desert corridors and along the Euphrates River valley — the same areas where Syrian army operations must now patrol, investigate and protect supply routes.
The Islamic State group has long relied on terrain and local disruption to sustain Islamic State attacks even after losing territory. In November 2025, Syria’s interior ministry said it carried out nationwide pre-emptive raids against Islamic State cells, with 61 raids and 71 arrests, a Reuters report said. The campaign was billed as a way to disrupt planned Islamic State attacks before they reached crowded urban areas and to sharpen Syrian army operations against remaining cells.
Background: a long-running insurgency
The latest Islamic State attacks come nearly a decade after Syrian forces and their allies said they pushed the militants from their last significant town in Syria, Albu Kamal, in November 2017, Reuters reported at the time. Even then, officials and monitors warned that Islamic State attacks would likely shift into a guerrilla phase driven by sleeper cells.
The group’s territorial rule ended in March 2019 when U.S.-backed forces announced they had captured the last Islamic State-held enclave at Baghouz in Deir al-Zor province. Reuters reported then that the collapse of the so-called caliphate did not eliminate the threat, noting that militants could still mount Islamic State attacks through hidden networks and desert hideouts.
What happens next
Syrian officials have repeatedly said Syrian army operations will continue across the country’s east to prevent militants from regrouping and to limit Islamic State attacks on government forces and civilians. For residents of Deir al-Zor and Raqqa, the immediate concern is whether Islamic State attacks remain limited to small-arms ambushes — or whether the insurgents can leverage the shifting political landscape to carry out higher-profile strikes.
