Syria has carried out nationwide preemptive operations targeting Islamic State cells, a spokesperson for the interior ministry said on Saturday, as the country’s president arrived in the US for talks with Donald Trump.
Syrian security forces carried out 61 raids, with 71 people arrested and explosives and weapons seized, the spokesperson told state-run Al Ekhbariya TV.
The raids came as the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, arrived in Washington for a planned meeting with Trump, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. He is expected to join an anti-Islamic State US-led coalition.
The US state department and Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The visit by Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts.
The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May.
The US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said this month that Sharaa would “hopefully” sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against Islamic State.
The state department’s decision on Friday to remove Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected.
A spokesperson said Sharaa’s government had been meeting US demands, including on working to find missing Americans and on eliminating any remaining chemical weapons.
On Thursday, Washington led a vote by the Security Council to remove UN sanctions against him.
Formerly affiliated with al-Qaida, Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, was delisted as a terrorist group by Washington in July.
Since taking power, Syria’s new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a moderate image more tolerable to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.
Sharaa is expected to seek funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of brutal civil war. In October, the World Bank put a “conservative best estimate” of the cost of rebuilding Syria at $216bn.
Washington is preparing to establish a military presence at an airbase in Damascus to help enable a security pact the US is brokering between Syria and Israel, six sources familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.
A US administration official also previously said Washington was constantly evaluating its necessary posture in Syria to effectively combat Islamic State.
