Syrian forces raid Islamic State group hideouts in Aleppo

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) members are seen in Damascus. (Reuters Photo)

DAMASCUS  -  Syrian security forces raided Islamic State hideouts in Aleppo on Saturday and three militants were killed, authorities said, the first time the Islamist-led government has announced such an operation against the jihadist group in Syria's second city.

A member of the security forces was also killed, and four Islamic State militants were detained during the raids, Interior Ministry statements said. The security forces seized weapons, bombs and uniforms with the security forces' insignia.

A security source said the raids had targeted sleeper cells in four locations, and 10 people had been arrested. The source said that one of the Islamic State militants had blown himself up during the operation.

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who once led a branch of al Qaeda, has long been an adversary of Islamic State,  and battled the group's self-declared caliphate during the Syrian war.

U.S. President Donald Trump met Sharaa earlier this week, and praised him as an "attractive guy with a very strong past" after the encounter in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. 

Trump also declared the United States would lift sanctions, a major U.S. policy shift that should help revive the shattered economy and marked a major boost for Sharaa.      

Sharaa seized power in Damascus in December after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad. Sharaa cut ties with al Qaeda in 2016.

Islamic State controlled swathes of Syria and Iraq at the height of its power, before being beaten out of the territory by enemies including a U.S.-led military alliance.

In January, the Syrian authorities announced they had foiled an attack by Islamic State on the Sayeda Zeinab shrine in a Damascus suburb, a site of mass pilgrimage for Shi'ites, and had arrested members of the cell.

Islamic State militants killed five members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria last month, in one of their deadliest attacks in a while.

 (Reporting by Tom Perry and Hatem Maher; Editing by Susan Fenton, Mark Potter and Gareth Jones)