Presumed ISIS militants attacked a police station of the Kurdish autonomous administration [9] at al-Sabha in Syria's eastern Deir ez-Zor [10] province June 8. The attack with grenades and small arms was repulsed by the local Asayish [14] police force without loss of life. But this was only the latest in a spate of new ISIS attacks in Syria. In a first attack on central government forces since the ouster the Assad dictatorship last December, ISIS boasted in a communique May 31 that its fighters had killed several soldiers of the "the apostate Syrian regime" at a road checkpoint in Talul al-Safa, in southern Suwayda [11] province. That same day, one member of the Free Syrian Army was killed in an ambush by ISIS militants on an FSA patrol in al-Tanf Deconfliction Zone [12], a US military outpost near the Jordan border. (Rudaw [15], Kurdistan4 [13], CNN [16])
The FSA is a remnant rebel faction [17] operating under US protection and awaiting integration into the new government's security forces.
The White Helmets [10] volunteer emergency aid group, also known as the Syrian Civil Defense [18], has decided to merge into the new government, becoming part of the Ministry of Emergency & Disaster Management. "This integration marks a new beginning, as we move from civil society into institutional governance, carrying with us all the values of sacrifice, dedication, human dignity, and our timeless mission," the group said in a statement [19]. (TNH [20])
