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3. Syria Says Detained Senior IS Jihadist in Damascus

Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Islamic State group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.

Taha al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an IS leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.

The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone IS gunman in central Syria's Palmyra.

"Our specialised units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting" an IS hideout, Dalati said.

On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five IS members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.

It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who was due to be fired for his "extremist Islamist ideas".

AFP