The Pentagon. Photo: U.S. DoD
WASHINGTON,— The United States wants to maintain support for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in their fight against Islamic State militants despite US troops withdrawing from Syrian Kurdistan (northern Syria), a Pentagon official said Tuesday.
The Kurdish forces were the main ground partner in the US-led campaign against the Islamic State group, and US President Donald Trump has faced a firestorm of criticism for abandoning a loyal ally.
“There’ll be ongoing conversations on what kind of capabilities we can help bring to them to continue the fight within Syria,” the Pentagon official said, requesting anonymity.
“We continue to be committed to the de-ISIS campaign and we want to figure out how we can continue working with the SDF.
“They have a very strong robust relationship with the US military… and we think we can preserve that relationship.”
The US is to withdraw more than 1,000 troops from northern Syria, keeping only a residual contingent of around 150 at the Al-Tanf base near the southeastern borders with Jordan and Iraq.
Trump announced the pullback last week, a move widely interpreted as green-lighting a long-planned Turkish invasion of Syrian Kurdistan.
As Turkish forces advanced, Syria on Tuesday dispatched more forces to beat back the offensive, while Russia deployed patrols to prevent clashes between the two sides.
European governments are worried the chaos could trigger mass breakouts by thousands of IS fighters detained by Kurdish forces, and a broader resurgence of the jihadist movement.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, considered the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and U.S. has provided them with arms. The YPG, which is the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
The Kurdish forces expelled the Islamic State from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019.
Syria’s Kurds have detained thousands of local and foreign fighters suspected of fighting for Islamic State, as well as thousands of related women and children.
11,000 Kurdish male and female fighters had been killed in five years of war to eliminate the Islamic State “caliphate” that once covered an area the size of Great Britain in Syria and Iraq.
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