For the first time since the fall of the Assad regime, the Islamic State successfully struck the new Syrian government, targeting a security post in the eastern town of Mayadin with a May 18 car bomb attack that left five dead. Intentionally or not, the strike coincided with several other significant developments in the Syria file—it came one day after government forces clashed with an IS cell in Aleppo (the first such sting operation since March), less than a week after President Trump met with President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh, and subsequent to a U.S. military drawdown in Syria that began in mid-April. Although the local IS presence is nowhere near as strong as it once was, the trend lines point to a persistent threat that cannot be ignored.
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