ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US President Joe Biden plans to stand with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) after the SDF chief warned that the radical group is planning a resurgence, exploiting the ongoing attacks on them from militia groups, according to America's national security advisor.
Jake Sullivan said during a panel at the 92nd Street Y in New York on Saturday, organized by GZERO Media, that one of the “major issues” Washington is “how to ensure that we are standing up for and standing with our best and closest partners in that ISIS fight, that is Syrian Democratic Forces - Kurdish-led forces but also with a lot of Arabs fighting alongside them.”
SDF has been the main ally of the US-led global coalition against ISIS on the ground, territorially defeating the group in 2019 after years of deadly clashes.
“We need to stand up for them and ensure that they are secure enough in their position that they can continue to be the good partners they have been, including with respect to administration of these very large prisons and prison camps where you have thousands of ISIS fighters and tens of thousands of family members, wives and children of ISIS fighters, who, if they were all to get out, would represent a really quite considerable threat to the region and ultimately to the United States,” he added.
“We need to stand with the Kurds and President Biden intends to do that,” Sullivan noted.
Biden's terms will end in less a month and it is not clear how President-elect Donald Trump will deal with Syria and Kurds. He said in a statement before Assad's downfall that the unrest in Syria was not US fight. 'Let it play out. Do not get involved."
SDF chief Mazloum Abdi has warned during a series of interviews with international media that the ISIS threat has recently increased following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and amid escalated tensions between the SDF and Turkey-backed militia groups in northern Syria.
He told the BBC that ISIS activities have ”increased significantly,” adding that the danger of a resurgence has “doubled.”
There are around 10,000 ISIS prisoners in the SDF-held northeast Syria (Rojava) and more than 40,000 of ISIS-affiliated women and children in the notorious al-Hol camp Kurdish authorities describe it as a “ticking time bomb.”
Several US Senators have expressed support for the SDF, with prominent Senators, Chris Van Hollen and Lindsey Graham, introducing a bill on Friday to impose sanctions on Turkey in response to its ongoing attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.
Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militants have prepared to strike the symbolic Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria after rebels toppled Assad’s regime earlier this month. They first moved against the SDF by attacking the northwestern Shahba region, taking Tal Rifaat and Manbij.
The US brokered a four-day ceasefire between the SDF and Turkey, which a State Department spokesperson confirmed had been extended through the end of last week. The SDF has said SNA attacks have not stopped, claiming to have repelled many of them and killed dozens of militants.
