WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s rapidly shifting strategy in northern Syria has U.S. commanders there scrambling to protect their forces from an expected surge in actions by military units from Turkey, Russia, Iran and the Syrian government, as well as their proxy forces, according to Defense Department officials. U.S. commanders now see these armed groups as a greater danger than the Islamic State forces they were sent to fight.
“These forces are at risk without a clear understanding of what they are expected to achieve, and without the political support of their nation, if or more likely when, one of these American adversaries decided to attack them,” said Jennifer Cafarella, the research director for the Institute for the Study of War in Washington. “These guys are deployed in one of the most risky, complex and rapidly evolving environments on the planet.
As U.S. forces pulled back in early October, a U.S. military document circulated to forces in the region, warned of the coming difficulties. “Complexity” surrounding U.S. forces in northern Syria “has only increased in recent weeks as multiple opposing groups and actors have gradually increased their forces in surrounding areas,” said the document, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.
Speaking to lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that the situation in northern Syria has “generally stabilized,” although he cautioned that Turkish-backed fighters remained a “wild card.”“Right now there’s no disposition plans that I’m tracking,” Esper said.
But for now, McKenzie said, the remaining U.S. forces in northern Syria, working alongside several thousand allied militia members from the Syrian Democratic Forces, will be able to carry out “effective” counterterrorism missions against the Islamic State in that part of the country. Last month, the forces restarted operations against the terrorist group, after groups of Islamic State fighters began operating again in the chaos created by the Turkish incursion and U.S. retreat.
In February 2018, about 500 Syrian troops and dozens of vehicles, backed by Russian contractors, attacked the Conoco gas plant near Deir el-Zour. U.S. commandos there, alongside Kurdish forces and backed by waves of U.S. aircraft, fought back, killing hundreds of the fighters.
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