ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The ongoing threat of a fresh military incursion into northern Syria is extremely concerning and threatens to detract Kurdish-led forces from the enduring fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), a senior US official said on Tuesday.
In a virtual press briefing attended by Rudaw English, Major General Matthew McFarlane, commander of the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) and Dana Stroul, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, provided an update on the ongoing mission to defeat ISIS as well as Washington’s partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria (Rojava).
“It does not change our concerns that continued Turkish military incursions into northern Syria would detract from the shared global commitment against ISIS,” Stroul said in response to a question by Rudaw English, affirming Washington’s “grave and serious” concerns about a potential incursion repeatedly threatened by Turkish officials.
“A Turkish military incursion … is an ongoing area of concern which we constantly raise.”
Senior Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have repeatedly threatened a ground operation against the SDF under the pretext of ridding the region of “terrorism” and securing Turkey’s border with Syria. Ankara views the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the backbone of the SDF – as the Syrian front of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
On November 20, Ankara launched Operation Claw-Sword targeting the YPG and the PKK in northern Syria and the Kurdistan Region. Erdogan at the time said the aerial campaign was a prelude to a looming ground offensive in those areas.
As Turkey’s south, home to a large Kurdish population, continues to be gripped by a devastating earthquake that has killed around 45,000 people, the country carried out two deadly drone strikes on vehicles in SDF-controlled northeast Syria, killing at least two.
The SDF, which fought the lion’s share of the battle against ISIS and ultimately defeated the terror group in 2019, are also in control of numerous detention facilities housing tens of thousands of former ISIS fighters.
“We are concerned that it would detract SDF who are no longer concerned about maintaining security at the detention facilities with tens of thousands of ISIS fighters,” Stroul added.
The PKK is a Kurdish group that has waged an armed insurgency against Turkey for decades and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara alongside the YPG.
Commitment to D-ISIS mission
Major General McFarlane assured that the US remains extremely committed to the region in line with its agenda to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS, saying that the terror group hasn’t been able to conduct a sophisticated, massive attack since one on the al-Sina’a prison in Hasaka, northeast Syria in January 2022, when ISIS attempted to break thousands of its affiliates and members out of the facility, leading to the deaths of over 320 ISIS and SDF fighters.
“We remain committed to our part in ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS,” he said.
Stroul supported McFarlane’s statements and strongly stated that anti-ISIS operations will continue.
“Every national security team looks at the atrocities of the world’s worst conventional terrorist army we have ever seen and decided that supporting our partners in the enduring defeat of ISIS must continue, including President [Joe] Biden, Secretary of Defense [Lloyd] Austin, and the entire National Security team,” Stroul said.
ISIS seized control of swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, declaring a so-called caliphate in 2014, but the terror group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively but continues to conduct hit-and-run attacks.
“Even though ISIS no longer holds territory, it still has the ideology to inspire and recruit members in its ranks,” Stroul warned, emphasizing that the operations against the terror group will continue and reiterating America’s longstanding commitment to the region.
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