In Syria, the United States aims to break ISIS and protect its allies
With the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the United States is striving to maintain its influence in the vortex of global forces at work in Syria. The US military hopes to protect its vulnerable Kurdish allies while hitting ISIS hard enough so that it never regroups.
The rapid overthrow of the Syrian regime caught US military officials by surprise. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Defense Department is now closely monitoring whether pockets of ISIS fighters — who controlled 34,000 square miles and 2 million people at their peak a decade ago — will attempt to “take advantage of this opportunity and regain capacity.” Monday.
Why did we write this?
The fall of Bashar al-Assad opens new strategic opportunities for the United States: to crush ISIS and maintain a steady hand in the vortex of global forces at work in the region.
The United States has 900 soldiers in Syria. Analysts say that these forces face a particular danger now after the collapse of the country’s government. As if to highlight — and dispel — these fears, US Central Command announced that it had carried out “dozens” of airstrikes using B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets and A-10 attack aircraft against ISIS operatives and training camps on Monday. .
Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said the main focus of the United States is to ensure that chemical weapons produced by the Assad regime “do not fall into the hands of anyone who wants to use them against civilians, or against our partners in the region.”
The rapid overthrow of the Syrian regime – which included the flight of leader Bashar al-Assad to Moscow – came as a surprise to US military officials.
“I think everyone expected to see much tougher resistance from Assad’s forces,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday, as the regime agreed to hand over power to the Syrian Sunni Islamist rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. .
Now the Department of Defense is closely watching whether pockets of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters — who controlled 34,000 square miles and 2 million people at the height of their alleged caliphate a decade ago — will attempt to “take advantage of this opportunity and regain the ability,” Secretary Austin said. “.
Why did we write this?
The fall of Bashar al-Assad opens new strategic opportunities for the United States: to crush ISIS and maintain a steady hand in the vortex of global forces at work in the region.
The United States is also seizing opportunities amid a strategic free-for-all policy. As it strives to maintain a strong presence in the maelstrom of global forces at work in Syria, the U.S. military hopes to protect vulnerable allies and strike ISIS hard enough so that it never regroups.
For this reason, the United States has nearly 900 soldiers in Syria. But transitional times are fraught with danger, and analysts say these forces face particular danger now that the country’s government has collapsed.
As if to highlight these fears — and dispel them — US Central Command, which runs the Pentagon’s operations in Syria, announced that it had carried out “dozens” of airstrikes against ISIS members and training camps on Monday.
Today, Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said that Assad’s navy had been destroyed to prevent it falling “into the hands of extremists.” This is one of hundreds of strikes carried out by Israeli warplanes since the rebels seized power.
Intelligence specialists are still assessing the results of these strikes – which for the United States included B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets, and A-10 attack aircraft. “I think we will find that we have been very successful,” Secretary Austin said.
The collapse of Syrian and Russian air defenses means that the United States and its allies “don’t need the elaborate preparations and countermeasures that were required before,” says retired Col. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser in the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic Studies. and international studies.
While US forces are concentrated in northeastern Syria, the fighting waged by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham is mainly taking place in the west and southwest of the country. But as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham consolidates its control, the rebel group “will clash with these American forces,” Colonel Cancian predicts.
So far, the US military has not reached out directly to HTS, although it has “counterparts and other groups with ways to get messages out,” Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday.
Most urgently, she added, the Department of Defense is focused on helping to ensure that chemical weapons produced by the Assad regime do not fall into the hands of “anyone who wishes to use them against civilians, or against our partners in the region.” “We have experience in this matter.”
A tripwire for the troops
The US military was looking to escalate hostilities against ISIS this summer.
The US-designated terrorist group has doubled its attacks on US and allied forces to 153 in Iraq and Syria between 2023 and 2024. After its defeat in 2017, ISIS was trying to grow again, US Central Command officials warned.
The commanders provided a summary of the US military’s response: The Defeat ISIS Mission conducted 59 operations with the Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Forces in the first half of 2024, killing 14 ISIS members and arresting 92.
Today, there are still approximately 2,500 ISIS fighters “at large” across Iraq and Syria, according to Central Command. When not rooting out people identified by US intelligence as terrorists, US forces in the country are tasked with helping the Syrian Democratic Forces protect oil fields in the northeast, a mission President Donald Trump first assigned to the forces in 2019.
Critics at the time called it a grab of American money. The prospect of oil revenues for US companies is said to have helped dissuade Mr Trump from completely withdrawing US forces from Syria.
American officials said that the goal is to deprive terrorists and the Assad regime of important funds and resources.
Today, money and control over oil fields is a major reason the Kurds are able to rule much of northeastern Syria. This does not please Turkish leaders, who say Kurdish terrorists are using the region to plan attacks against them.
Until now, US forces on the ground have offered protection to the Kurds, effectively a “trip wire” of sorts, preventing Turkey from attacking America’s Kurdish allies, notes Stephen Simon, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
The Kurds have been key comrades-in-arms in the US war against ISIS and against Al-Qaeda in Iraq. What happens to them matters to many American veterans of these and other wars.
Among these — most notably the late Senator John McCain — there has long been “a romanticized image of the Kurds as daring fighters fending off terrorist hordes to spare the United States a burdensome burden,” notes Mr. Miller, who served on the National Security Council. Senior director for the Middle East region under President Barack Obama.
When Turkey took advantage of the chaos created by the collapse of the Assad regime to fire on Kurdish forces on December 7, killing at least 22 SDF soldiers, Secretary Austin telephoned his Turkish counterpart.
They agreed on the need to “prevent further escalation of an already volatile situation, as well as avoid any risk to US forces and their partners,” according to a Pentagon statement of the call.
It is unclear whether the Kurds will inspire the same loyalty in the incoming Trump administration that they have historically gained with US administrations. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, told CBS News on Sunday that Mr. Trump “absolutely supports the Kurds.”
At the same time, the president-elect will begin to “assess whether or not” US forces should remain in Syria, and “make clear… that any threat to US forces will be responded to in an incredible way,” Rep. Turner said during the hearing. broadcast.
Pentagon officials agree, especially as they grapple with ongoing concern that skirmishes between Turkish-backed militias and the Syrian Democratic Forces could create enough confusion for ISIS to escape prisons, bolstering their ranks.
Currently, US forces are assisting the Syrian Democratic Forces in guarding 9,000 ISIS prisoners who remain in Syrian detention centers, along with 43,000 displaced people waiting to return from camps in the northeast.
Defense officials say the expected withdrawal of US forces from Iraq encourages attacks on US forces in Syria. They add that it is an attempt to pressure America to leave the country forever.