NORTHEAST SYRIA, March 4 (Reuters) – The nearly eight-year-old 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, no announced a visit to a dusty base in the northeast of the country to meet with US troops.
Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew to Syria to assess efforts to prevent the rise of the militant group and review protections for American forces against attacks, including those drones flown by Iranian-backed militias.
While the Islamic State is a shadow of the group that rules over a third of Syria and Iraq in a caliphate it declared in 2014, hundreds of fighters are still camped out in desolate areas where neither the US-led coalition nor the Syrian army, with support from Russia. and Iranian-backed militias, have full control.
Thousands more Islamic State fighters are in detention facilities guarded by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, America’s main ally in the country.
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American officials say the Islamic State may yet evolve into a major threat.
But the mission, which former President Donald Trump nearly ended in 2018 before softening his withdrawal plans, remains part of the larger global war on terror that includes a war in Afghanistan and a greater US military deployment in Iraq.
Asked by reporters traveling with him if he believed sending nearly 900 U.S. troops to Syria was worth the risk, Milley tied the security mission of the United States and its allies, saying : “If you think that’s important, then the answer is ‘Yes.'”
“I think it’s important,” Milley said.
“So I think that a lasting defeat of ISIS and continued support of our friends and allies in the region … I think those are important tasks to do.”
The mission carries risk. Four US troops were wounded during 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 attempted to conduct reconnaissance of a patrol base in northeastern 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 hit the compound, injuring two members of the Syrian Free Army forces.
US officials believe the drone and rocket attacks were directed at Iranian-backed militias, a reminder of Syria’s complex geopolitics where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad relies on support from Iran and Russia and sees US troops as invaders.
America’s NATO ally Turkey has also threatened a broad offensive in Syria that would threaten the US military’s Syrian Kurdish partners, whom Ankara considers terrorists.
US Army Major General Matthew McFarlane, who commands the US-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, described the attacks against US forces as a “distraction from our primary mission. “
McFarlane cited progress against the Islamic State, including a reduction in the number of internally displaced people in refugee camps – a pool of vulnerable people who could be recruited by the Islamic State.
The al-Hol camp houses more than 50,000 people, including Syrians, Iraqis and other nationals fleeing the conflict, and McFarlane estimates that around 600 babies are born there each year.
Lieutenant Kamal Alsawafy from the Michigan National Guard is one of the US soldiers in Syria helping provide security for Iraqis leaving al-Hol to be returned to Iraq in protected convoys.
The son of Iraqi refugees who immigrated to the United States, Alsawafy said helping Iraqi refugees brought him joy and described watching the people of al-Hol rejoice as the Iraqis left. in the camps for a better life back in Iraq.
“It’s a good feeling,” Alsawafy said.
McFarlane said he believes the time will come when US partners in Syria will be able to manage themselves. But there is no publicly known target date to complete the transfer.
“Over time, I envision us moving when the conditions are met, where our partners can be independent with a sustainable capacity and capability to keep ISIS in check,” he said.
Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft
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