On December 13, 2025, a member of Syria’s General Security killed two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter during a meeting in the desert town of Palmyra. The attacker was reportedly a recent recruit to the General Security’s Badia Directorate and had been under recent investigation for suspected ISIS sympathies.
The attack underscored the risk of ISIS infiltration into Syria’s new security services, particularly given the rapid recruitment and expansion of the Ministry of Interior during the first half of 2025 (as I detail in my recent report). It also hinted at the complex security coordination between the U.S. and Damascus, both of whom had spent years pursuing separate anti-ISIS campaigns. After the fall of the Assad regime, both actors found themselves suddenly on-the-ground in the Syrian Badia, the huge expanse of desert steppes and mountains in central Syria.
The Badia had long been a core staging ground for ISIS, whose cells had conducted a robust insurgency against Assad regime forces since 2017. During the regime’s era, the towns and villages across the Badia had been largely emptied of their civilian population, heavily destroyed, and turned into bases for Syrian regime and foreign militias. Since liberation, this area has seen a gradual return of displaced people and ongoing rebuilding efforts.
Tasked with securing this complex region is the Internal Security Badia Directorate. In May, I met with members of the directorate to discuss some of the challenges they face. Below is a partial transcript of that interview.