WASHINGTON (AP) — Massive U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State militants in Syria had been meant partially as a message to the group and a transfer to make sure that it doesn’t attempt to make the most of the chaos following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad’s authorities.
The U.S. and its companions need to make sure that the Islamic State group, which nonetheless has a presence in Syria, can’t step into the management void and as soon as once more exert management over extensive swaths of the nation, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh mentioned Monday. The U.S. on Sunday struck about 75 IS targets within the Syrian desert.
The U.S. has had troops in Syria for the final decade to battle IS. The tumult following a insurgent offensive that toppled Assad has raised fears of an Islamic State resurgence.
“ISIS will attempt to use this era to reestablish its capabilities, to create protected havens,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Monday, utilizing one other acronym for the group. “As our precision strikes over the weekend display, we’re decided to not let that occur.”
So far, U.S. officers are saying that they don’t plan a rise in American forces in Syria however are targeted on ensuring these already there are protected.
Here’s a take a look at the U.S. battle in opposition to the Islamic State group:
What’s the U.S. army presence in Syria?
The U.S. has about 900 troops and an undisclosed variety of contractors in Syria, largely at small bases within the north and east, with a small quantity farther south on the al-Tanf garrison nearer to the Iraq and Jordan borders.
U.S. particular operations forces additionally routinely transfer in and in another country however are normally in small groups and should not included within the official rely.
Islamic State militants seized massive elements of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring a caliphate. The U.S. gathered a coalition of allies and was capable of defeat IS in Iraq in 2017. The U.S. partnered with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, and after fierce combating, finally declared an finish to the caliphate in Syria in 2019.
Remnants of the militant group stay, together with as many as 10,000 fighters held in SDF-run detention services in Syria and tens of hundreds of their members of the family dwelling in refugee camps.
And IS fighters have been extra energetic over the previous 12 months or so, together with in assaults in opposition to U.S. and Kurdish forces in Syria.
The nation has been wracked by violence and competing pursuits. Russia has a naval port within the north, and whereas there have been fewer Russian forces within the space because the onset of the warfare in Ukraine, the U.S. maintains a deconfliction phoneline with Moscow to keep away from any troop miscalculations on the bottom or within the air.
Iran additionally has had a major presence, typically utilizing Syria as a transit route to maneuver weapons into Lebanon to be used by Hezbollah militants in opposition to Israel.
The al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria is situated on an important street that may hyperlink Iranian-backed forces from Tehran all the way in which to southern Lebanon and Israel’s doorstep. So troops on the U.S. garrison can attempt to disrupt these shipments.
Why is the U.S. putting Islamic State targets?
The U.S. has, over the previous decade, routinely focused IS leaders, camps and weapons in Syria to maintain the group at bay and stop it from coalescing.
In the previous 12 months, as Israel’s warfare with Hamas widened right into a broader battle with Hezbollah in Lebanon, assaults by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria in addition to by the Islamic State group have escalated.
As a consequence, the U.S. has stored up a gradual drumbeat of counterattacks in opposition to all of the teams, together with in opposition to IS camps within the desert, the place fighters discovered protected haven.
Officials say that whereas the group is vastly weaker than in 2014, it nonetheless maintains hundreds of militants in Syria.
On Sunday, the U.S. launched one in every of its bigger, extra expansive assaults in opposition to IS camps and operatives within the desert, profiting from the Assad authorities’s downfall. The U.S. bombed no less than 75 targets in about 5 places utilizing B-52 bombers, A-10 assault plane and F-15 fighter jets.
“Does it ship a message? I imply, I feel it completely sends a message that we use B-52s, A-10s and F-15s,” Singh informed reporters. She had no different particulars on the results of the strikes.
What’s subsequent for the U.S. in Syria?
The Biden administration insists the U.S. is not going to become involved in Syria’s warfare or the overthrow of the Assad authorities. But the U.S. and its allies have deep pursuits in Syria, together with the efforts to defeat IS, disrupt Iran-backed teams and include the remnants of al-Qaida and different terror teams which have discovered sanctuary.
“I feel it’s a harbinger of extra instability and the potential for extra political violence,” Chris Costa, former senior director for counterterrorism within the first Trump administration, mentioned final week earlier than the autumn of Damascus. Costa spent a long time within the U.S. Army and ran particular operations in fight zones. “I feel there’s the potential for ISIS once more to make bother not only for the Iraqis but additionally be emboldened within the area.”
Alex Younger, who led Britain’s overseas intelligence company, MI6, between 2014 and 2020, mentioned a giant concern is the “very massive variety of ISIS detainees left over from the destruction of the caliphate.”
Younger informed the BBC that IS remnants are “at present contained by the Kurdish teams within the east, but when they go off the job, you possibly can count on a critical spike within the menace posed to Europe by ISIS.”
Who will rule Syria?
Another drawback is determining who’s in cost.
The opposition forces that stormed into Damascus and despatched Assad fleeing to Russia are led by a gaggle referred to as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, that initially was a part of al-Qaida, however break up quite a few years in the past. HTS is taken into account a overseas terrorist group by the U.S. and the United Nations.
Its chief Ahmad al-Sharaa, previously often known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has sought to reassure Syrians that the group is extra reasonable. U.S. officers say that whereas he could also be saying a few of the proper issues, they’re adopting a wait-and-see angle for now.
White House nationwide safety spokesman, John Kirby, informed CNN News Central on Monday that whereas HTS “was the vanguard” they aren’t the one opposition group concerned.
“We’re going to be working via all of the processes we will, together with on the U.N., to ensure that there’s sufficient communication with these opposition teams and that we’re all working collectively,” he mentioned.
Singh mentioned she will not be conscious of any formal U.S. channel of communications with the group. But, she mentioned, “We produce other methods of getting messages via, , teams and different allies within the area.”
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Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker and Sagar Meghani in Washington and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
