On Saturday, June 20th, the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) claimed responsibility for targeting two Syrian army soldiers in the village of Salha near the city of Manbij, northeast of Aleppo, with machine guns, killing them.

In a statement posted on its network identifiers, the group said that "the soldiers of the caliphate targeted two members of the retreating Syrian army in the village of Salha near Manbij."

The Information and Communication Department of the Syrian Ministry of Defense announced the death of two army soldiers after they were targeted by unknown assailants near the city of Manbij, northeast of Aleppo.

3 operations to organize "Al-Dali" in less than a week

This is the third targeting of the internationally designated terrorist organization in less than a week inside Syrian territory, as it claimed responsibility in a statement on Wednesday (June 17th) for targeting the head of the judicial palace department in the town of Babila, south of Damascus.

The group said at the time in a statement through its identifiers that its members detonated a sticky device in the mechanism of the head of the judicial palace department in the town of Babila, which led to the "amputation of one of his legs."

The group announced on Tuesday (June 16th) that two of its members attacked the headquarters of the Internal Security Command west of Raqqa on Monday, and the operation, according to the organization, resulted in at least four deaths and injuries.

The group described the operation as "a daring attack on a heavily fortified security square that houses the central security headquarters of the US-led Syrian regime."

The fighters reached the main gate of the fortified headquarters and were able to enter it and clash with its members at close range, he said.

Suicide attack on a military headquarters in Bza'a in Manbij countryside

According to Syrian security and military sources, the attacker, who was riding a bicycle, tried to penetrate the security cordon surrounding one of the headquarters of the 76th Division in Baza'a, before the guards spotted him and shot him directly.

This led to the suicide bomber himself detonating immediately after he was wounded, which resulted in his immediate death without any casualties among the military forces, and the damage was limited to material.

Local reports later revealed that the attacker was named as Omar Abd al-Razzaq al-Ali (born in 1990), who hails from the village of Isqat/Isnabul, and previously resided in the Masaken Hanano neighborhood in Aleppo city.

About 20,000 ISIS mercenaries infiltrate Syria

The growing activity of the Islamic State in Syria during the recent period is reminiscent of what a report by the US Department of Defense in cooperation with the intelligence services revealed that between 15,000 and 20,000 people suspected of being linked to the "Islamic State" and their families have fled after security chaos and mass escape from camps and prisons in northeastern Syria.

The newly released US report said US assessments had identified a near-complete evacuation of the sprawling al-Hol camp, with its population falling from about 23,400 to just under 1,500, as a result of mass fleeing and organised smuggling of women and families linked to the group.

Nearly 1,500 hardline prisoners escaped from al-Shaddadi prison, amid security chaos that accompanied military withdrawals and a change in control of territory, allowing the group elements to exploit loopholes and disappear into vast desert areas, the report said.