Syria mission worth the risk, top US general says after rare visit

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NORTHEAST SYRIA, March 4 (Reuters) – The nearly eight-year U.S. deployment to Syria to fight Islamic State is still worth the risk, the top U.S. military official said on Saturday, after a rare visit unexpectedly in a dusty base in the northeast of the country to meet the American troops.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Syria to assess efforts to prevent a resurgence of the militant group and review US forces’ safeguards against attacks, including those drones piloted by Iranian-backed militias.

While Islamic State is a shadow of the group that ruled more than a third of Syria and Iraq in a declared caliphate in 2014, hundreds of fighters are still camped out in desolate areas where neither the coalition-led coalition by the United States or the Syrian army, with the support of Russia. and Iran-backed militias, exercise total control.

Thousands of other Islamic State fighters are in detention centers guarded by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, America’s main ally in the country.

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US officials say the Islamic State could yet regenerate into a major threat.

But the mission, which former President Donald Trump nearly completed in 2018 before easing his withdrawal plans, is a holdover from the broader global war on terror that once included the war in Afghanistan and a US military deployment. much more important in Iraq.

Asked by reporters traveling with him if he believed the deployment to Syria of about 900 US troops in Syria was worth the risk, Milley linked the mission to the security of the United States and its allies, saying: “If you think it’s important, then the answer is yes.'”

“I think it’s important,” Milley said.

“So I think a lasting defeat of ISIS and continuing to support our friends and allies in the region…I think these are important tasks that can be accomplished.”

The mission involves risks. Four US soldiers were injured in a helicopter raid last month when an Islamic State leader set off an explosion.

Last month, the US military shot down an Iranian-made drone in Syria that was trying to carry out reconnaissance on a patrol base in northeast Syria.

Three drones targeted a US base in January in Syria’s Al-Tanf region. The US military said two of the drones were shot down while the remaining drone struck the compound, injuring two members of the Free Syrian Army forces.

US officials believe the drone and rocket attacks are being led by Iran-backed militias, a reminder of Syria’s complex geopolitics where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad relies on support from Iran and the Russia and sees US troops as occupiers.

Turkey, a US ally in NATO, has also threatened a major offensive in Syria that would threaten the US military’s Syrian Kurdish partners, whom Ankara considers terrorists.

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Matthew McFarlane, who commands the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, described the attacks on U.S. forces as a “distraction from our mission main”.

McFarlane cited progress against the Islamic State, including through the reduction in the number of displaced people in refugee camps – a pool of vulnerable people who could be recruited by the Islamic State.

The al-Hol camp is home to approximately more than 50,000 people, including Syrians, Iraqis and other nationals who have fled the conflict, and McFarlane estimated that around 600 babies are born there each year.

Michigan National Guard Lt. Kamal Alsawafy is one of the U.S. soldiers in Syria helping provide security for Iraqis departing al-Hol to be repatriated to Iraq in protected convoys.

The son of Iraqi refugees who emigrated to the United States, Alsawafy said helping Iraqi refugees brings him joy and described seeing people in al-Hol cheering as Iraqis left the camps for a living. better in Iraq.

“It’s a good feeling,” Alsawafy said.

McFarlane said he believes there will come a time when US partners in Syria can fend for themselves. But there is no publicly known target date for completing this transition.

“Over time, I envision a transition when the conditions are met, where our partners can independently have a sustainable capacity and capability to control ISIS,” he said.

Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Phil Stewart

Thomson Reuters

Phil Stewart has reported from over 60 countries including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China and South Sudan. An award-winning national security journalist based in Washington, Phil has appeared on NPR, PBS NewsHour, Fox News and other programs and hosted national security events including the Reagan National Defense Forum and the German Marshall Fund. He is the recipient of the Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence and the Joe Galloway Award.

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