Summary
Last month's sweeping territorial gains by militants from ISIS in Deir al-Zor province have generated a fierce counter-offensive by locals, organized loosely in "popular resistance" groups that are targeting the ultra-extremists.
ISIS was responding to the kidnapping of three ISIS members – a Syrian, an Iraqi and an Egyptian – by unknown assailants in the village of Swaidan, the Observatory added.
Observers say that the counter-offensive is very different than the seven-month long campaign against ISIS by rebel groups and rival jihadists, which has claimed thousands of lives.
An anti-ISIS movement was widely reported last week, when members of the Sheaitat tribe, concentrated in three villages between Deir al-Zor and the Iraqi border, rose up against ISIS after several members of the tribe were detained by the militants.
The violence is believed to have claimed the lives of several tribe members and at least nine ISIS members.
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