On 21 June 2017, YAT captured five ISIL sleeper agents who were preparing a terrorist attack in Manbij. In January 2018, the Anti-Terror Units killed the mastermind of the July 2016 Qamishli bombings, Hisen Ayid el-Bilebil Ebu el-Walid, during operations in Deir ez-Zor Governorate. In the same month, they also captured around twenty foreign members of ISIL as they attempted to flee from Syria to Turkey. One of those arrested was Thomas Barnouin, a French jihadist who is considered to be one of the planners of the 2012 Toulouse attack and the November 2015 Paris attacks.