Biden Administration Shared Secret Intelligence on ISIS Threat with New Syrian Leaders

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The outgoing United States Biden administration was sharing secret intelligence on threats from the Islamic State terror group with the Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham Islamic organization that took over governing Syria after ousting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime last month, the Washington Post reported exclusively on January 24.

One apparent outcome of the exchanges was that the new Syrian government was able to foil an ISIS plot to set off a bomb at a Shiite shrine in a Damascus suburb, WaPo said.

A former US official familiar with the US-Syrian exchanges told WaPo the Biden administration had been keen to prevent ISIS from taking advantage of the political transition in Syria to make a comeback.

“It’s the right, prudent and appropriate thing to do, given that there was credible, specific information [about ISIS threats], and coupled with our efforts to cultivate a relationship with these guys,” the official said.

“The intelligence exchange with HTS, which has not been previously reported, has occurred in direct encounters between U.S. intelligence officials and representatives of HTS, rather than via third parties, and has involved exchanges between the two sides, in Syria and a third country,” WaPo said it was told.

The communications began around two weeks after HTS came to power on December 8, WaPo said.

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