All is not smooth sailing for Syria’s rebel forces trying to stabilize a country devastated by Bashar Al-Assad’s Regime.

Syrian intelligence announced Sunday they have thwarted what could have been a devastating ISIS attack on the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, a revered Shia pilgrimage site located in Damascus’s southern suburbs.

“The General Intelligence Directorate is utilizing all its resources to confront all attempts to target the Syrian people in all their diversity,” a Syrian intelligence official told SANA.

During the raid outside Damascus, authorities discovered two rifles, three explosive devices, and several hand grenades. Four suspects were arrested, including two Lebanese nationals and a Palestinian refugee based in Lebanon.

Believed to house the tomb of Islamic Prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter, the shrine has been a recurring target for extremist violence. In 2016, ISIS launched two separate attacks: one killing 134 people, another taking 70 lives. More recently, a July 2023 bombing near the mausoleum resulted in six fatalities.

The persistent emergence of ISIS in Post-Assad Syria has been a difficult challenge for rebel armies.

Pentagon sources reveal to the Washington Post that ISIS is actively rebuilding its forces in Syria’s vast desert, with U.S. and Kurdish commanders reporting the group is training fresh recruits while harboring ambitions to restore its self-proclaimed caliphate. In the past year, the terrorist organization ramped up its offensive operations across Syria and Iraq, launching checkpoint raids, deploying car bombs, and orchestrating prison breaks to free captured ISIS terrorists.

Since Assad’s fall from power on December 8, ISIS has kept its violent campaign focused exclusively on territory held by the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces. However, with its newfound ability to traverse Syria’s fractured landscape, ISIS could let sleeping cells infiltrate new regions.