Syria announced a nationwide security crackdown on the Daesh terrorist group just as interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa began a landmark state visit to the U.S.
Al-Sharaa is due to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, marking the first such visit since Syria's independence in 1946.
Syria's crackdown on Daesh has resulted in the "neutralizing" of a member of the terrorist group and the injuring of a member of the government security forces, a Syrian official said late Saturday.
"The operation was pre-emptive, targeting Daesh cells in multiple regions and provinces," Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson, Noureddine al-Baba, told the state television al-Ikhbariya (The News).
He added that the campaign had included 61 raids, resulting in the detention of 71 Islamic State suspects across Syria.
In 2014, Daesh overran large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
The U.S. began an operation to combat the group during which the U.S. military, along with allies, conducted thousands of airstrikes in both countries.
Daesh is considered militarily defeated, but an estimated 2,500 of its operatives are still active in both countries.
During the White House visit, al-Sharaa is expected to sign a declaration, officially adding Syria to a U.S.-led coalition against Daesh, media reports said.
In December last year, al-Sharaa commanded a rebel alliance that deposed Syria's longtime dictator Bashar Assad, who fled the country for Russia.
On Friday, the U.S. lifted the sanctions that had been imposed on al-Sharaa. He had been on the U.S. sanctions list since 2013.
Al-Sharaa previously headed the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which had emerged from an al-Qaida offshoot in Syria.
Since taking over in Syria, al-Sharaa has been eager to reintegrate it into the international community and garner economic support to rebuild the country ruined by more than a decade of war.
