Here’s how the US is countering the Islamic State group during Syria’s upheaval
WASHINGTON — The massive U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State militants in Syria were partly intended as a message to the group and as a step to ensure that tries not to take advantage of the chaos after the overthrow of The government of President Bashar Assad.
The US and its partners want to ensure that the Islamic State group, which still has a presence in Syria, cannot move in the leadership empty and regain control over large parts of the country, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Monday. The US on Sunday hit approximately 75 IS targets in the Syrian desert.
The US has had troops in Syria to fight IS for the past decade. The tumult after a rebel offensive that toppled Assad Fears of a resurgence of Islamic State have increased.
“ISIS will seek to use this period to rebuild its capabilities and establish safe havens,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday, using a different acronym for the group. “As our precision strikes over the weekend demonstrate, we are determined to make that happen.”
So far, U.S. officials say they are not planning an expansion of U.S. forces in Syria but are focused on ensuring those already there are safe.
Here’s a look at the US fight against the Islamic State group:
The US has about 900 troops and an undisclosed number of contractors in Syria, largely at small bases in the north and east, with a small number further south at the al-Tanf garrison. closer to the borders of Iraq and Jordan.
U.S. Special Operations Forces also routinely move in and out of the country, but usually consist of small teams and are not counted in the official count.
Islamic State militants seized large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014declaring a caliphate. The US assembled a coalition of allies and was able to defeat IS in Iraq in 2017. The US worked with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and eventually declared an end to the caliphate in Syria in 2019 after intense fighting.
Remnants of the militant group remain, including as many as 10,000 fighters held in SDF-run detention centers in Syria and tens of thousands of their relatives living in refugee camps.
And IS fighters have been more active in the past year, including in attacks on American and Kurdish forces in Syria.
The country is plagued by violence and competing interests. Russia has a naval port in the north, and although fewer Russian troops have been in the area since the beginning the war in Ukrainethe US maintains a deconfliction telephone line with Moscow to prevent any miscalculations by troops on the ground or in the air.
Iran has also had a significant presence, often using Syria as a transit route to transport weapons to Lebanon for use by Hezbollah militants against Israel.
The al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria is on a vital road that could connect Iranian-backed forces from Tehran to southern Lebanon and Israel’s border. Troops from the American garrison may therefore try to disrupt those transports.
The US has routinely targeted IS leaders, camps and weapons in Syria over the past decade to keep the group at bay and prevent it from uniting.
The past year, if Israel’s war with Hamas has expanded into a broader conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, attacks have escalated by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria and by the Islamic State group.
As a result, the US has continued a steady series of counterattacks against all groups, including against IS camps in the desert, where fighters have found safe haven.
Officials say that while the group is much weaker than in 2014, there are still thousands of militants in Syria.
On Sunday, the US launched one of its bigger, more comprehensive attacks on IS camps and operatives in the desert, taking advantage of the demise of the Assad government. The US bombed at least 75 targets in about five locations using B-52 bombers, A-10 attack aircraft and F-15 fighter jets.
“Does it send a message? I mean, I think it definitely sends a message that we are using B-52s, A-10s and F-15s,” Singh told reporters. She had no further details on the outcome of the strikes.
The Biden administration insists the US will not get involved in the war in Syria or the overthrow of the Assad government. But the US and its allies have major interests in Syria, including efforts to defeat IS. disrupt Iranian-backed groups and contain the remnants of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups that have found refuge.
“I think it’s a harbinger of more instability and the potential for more political violence,” Chris Costa, former senior counterterrorism director in the first Trump administration, said last week before the fall of Damascus. Costa spent decades in the U.S. Army conducting special operations in combat zones. “I think there is a potential for ISIS to cause problems again, not only for the Iraqis, but also to galvanize the region.”
Alex Younger, who headed Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6 between 2014 and 2020, said a major concern is the “very large number of ISIS prisoners left after the destruction of the caliphate.”
Younger told the BBC that IS remnants are “currently hemmed in by the Kurdish groups in the east, but if they leave their jobs you can expect a serious spike in the threat that ISIS poses to Europe.”
Another problem is figuring out who is in charge.
The opposition forces that stormed into Damascus and caused Assad to flee to Russia are led by a so-called group Hayat Tahrir al-Shamor HTS, which was originally part of Al-Qaeda but split several years ago. HTS is considered a foreign terrorist organization by the US and the United Nations.
Its leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golanihas tried to reassure Syrians that the group is more moderate. U.S. officials say that while he is saying some of the right things, they are taking a wait-and-see approach for now.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told CNN News Central on Monday that while HTS “has been at the forefront,” they are not the only opposition group involved.
“We are going to go through all the processes we can, including at the UN, to ensure that there is adequate communication with these opposition groups and that we all work together,” he said.
Singh said she is not aware of any formal U.S. channel of communication with the group. But she said, “We have other ways of getting messages out to, you know, groups and other allies in the region.”
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Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker and Sagar Meghani in Washington and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.