“US forces advised, assisted, and enabled Syrian partners during more than 20 operations against ISIS, diminishing the threat of terror attacks,” Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, said in taped remarks he made for a conference in Washington on Wednesday.
The Middle East Institute (MEI) conference was focused on Syria.
“We are sustaining our aggressive pursuit of ISIS in Syria,” Cooper said, according to Rudaw Media Network, a news channel in the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.
The US and Syria have been cooperating to confront ISIS this year, especially after Damascus said it would join the coalition against ISIS in November. This followed a meeting between Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and US President Donald Trump.
This is important for CENTCOM posture in Syria. Previously, the US worked primarily with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
US, Syria eliminate ISIS weapons caches in 15 sites
The US also had forces at the Tanf Garrison in southern Syria near the Jordanian border. Tanf is a lonely outpost that was surrounded for years by the Assad regime. The US was training Syrian rebel groups there.
The Syrian rebel group, calling itself the Syria Free Army, later merged with the new Syrian government’s 70th Division after the fall of the Assad regime.
The US has carried out raids in parts of Syria, targeting extremist groups in places near Idlib and Afrin. Having a Syrian government partner greatly helps the conflict against ISIS, because it means ISIS cells can’t find roots in the Syrian desert near Deir Ezzor.
In the past, ISIS was largely defeated east of the Euphrates River by the SDF, which was backed by the US. The US had several hundred or up to 2,000 personnel in Syria to work with the SDF. West of the Euphrates, however, ISIS cells could still find a home during the chaos of the Assad regime.
News that the US has been working with its Syrian partners to conduct these operations is important. Cooper has visited Damascus several times, which illustrates how important this new connection is for the US.
In late November, CENTCOM said: “Forces from US Central Command (CENTCOM) and the Syrian Ministry of Interior located and destroyed more than 15 sites containing ISIS weapons caches in southern Syria, Nov. 24-27.”
“US military personnel from Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolved (CJTF-OIR) worked with Syrian forces in identifying and eliminating the ISIS weapons storage facilities across the Rif Damashq province during multiple airstrikes and ground detonations,” it said.
Cooper said at the time: “This successful operation ensures gains made against ISIS are lasting, and the group is not able to regenerate or export terrorist attacks to the US homeland and around the world.”
THE DETAILS provided to the MEI event give us more of a glimpse into operations and what comes next.
The US is working to “coordinate and foster collaboration with Syrian forces, our first line of effort in aggressively pursuing ISIS,” the conference organizers said.
In eastern Syria, the US-backed SDF, which is mostly Kurdish-led, is also active.
“Cooper’s remarks came a day after the SDF announced the capture of an ISIS emir in a raid conducted in cooperation with the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in eastern Deir ez-Zor province,” Rudaw Media Network reported. “Another ISIS militant was killed in a separate attack on one of the SDF’s outposts in the same region.”
The SDF estimates that 2,000 ISIS fighters may remain active in Syria, the report said.
Cooper provided other details in his taped remarks.
“Just to give an example, in the month of October, US forces advised, assisted and enabled Syrian partners during more than 20 operations against [ISIS], diminishing the terrorists’ attacks and export of violence around the world,” Saudi Arabia-based newspaper Arab News quoted him as saying. “We’re also degrading their ability to regenerate.”
Cooper also spoke about the challenge of Al-Hol detention camp, where many ISIS detainee families live. These people were captured in 2019, and many ended up in a sprawling IDP (internally displaced person) camp.
The ISIS families, consisting of women and children, continue to radicalize new generations. The women are often from other countries, including Europe, and joined ISIS in 2014-2015.
“Cooper added that the issue of displacement camps in northeastern Syria must also be addressed,” Arab News reported. “He said he has visited Al-Hawl camp four times since his first meeting with Sharaa, ‘which reinforced my view of the need to accelerate repatriations.’”
“The impact on displaced persons devastated by years of war and repression has been immense,” Cooper said. “As I mentioned in a late-September speech at the UN, continuing to repatriate displaced persons and detainees in Syria is both a humanitarian imperative and a strategic necessity.”
There are now about 26,000 people in Al-Hol and the smaller Roj camp, Arab News reported, which is a huge improvement from when there were 70,000.
The US hopes for successful integration of the SDF with the new Damascus-backed security forces. Cooper said it could “lead to a more predictable and stable security environment.”
This is important, because in March, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi met with Sharaa, and they agreed to integrate forces. Since then, there have been hurdles.
US Central Command has helped facilitate much of this – often behind the scenes, according to reports.
This is important for Syria and the region. Israel is also under the CENTCOM area of operations, and cooperation is at an all-time high. As such, it is also important within the regional context of Israel and Syria.