On a secret trip to Syria, the new commander of US forces in the Middle East on Saturday said he felt a moral obligation to enter a war zone to check on his troops and make his own assessment of progress in organizing local Arab and Kurd fighters for what has been a slow campaign to push the Islamic State out of Syria.
“I have responsibility for this mission, and I have responsibility for the people that we put here,” US Army General Joseph Votel said in an interview as dusk fell on the remote outpost where he had arrived 11 hours earlier.
“So it’s imperative for me to come and see what they’re dealing with — to share the risk they are dealing with,” he added.
Photo: AP
Votel, who has headed US Central Command for just seven weeks, became the highest-ranking US military officer known to have entered Syria since the US began its campaign to counter the Islamic State in 2014.
The circumstance was exceptional, because the US has no combat units in Syria, no diplomatic relations with Syria and for much of the past two years has enveloped much of its Syria military mission in secrecy.
Votel said he brought reporters with him, because: “We don’t have anything to hide. I don’t want people guessing about what we’re doing here. The American people should have the right to see what we’re doing here.”
Votel flew into northern Syria from Iraq, where he had conferred on Friday with US and Iraqi military commanders. In Syria he met with US military advisers working with Syrian Arab fighters and consulted with leaders of the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group of Kurdish and Arab fighters supported by the US.
After landing at a remote camp where US military advisers are training Syrian Arab troops in basic soldiering skills, Votel split off from the reporters who flew in with him; he then visited several other undisclosed locations in Syria before returning to the camp.
Syria is a raging war zone, torn by multiple conflicts that have created severe human suffering across much of the country. However, on Saturday the US advisers camp that Votel visited was quiet.
Situated about 80km from the nearest fighting, it was remarkably quiet. The sharpest sound was a month-old puppy’s yapping as he ran between visitors’ legs.
Aides said Votel’s flight into Syria was the first made in daylight by US forces, who have about 200 advisers on the ground.
The last known high-level US official to visit Syria was Brett McGurk, US President Barack Obama’s envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State. He spent two days in Syria in late January, including a tour of Kobani, the small town near the Turkish border where Kurdish fighters backed by US airstrikes had expelled an entrenched group of Islamic State fighters a year earlier.
In the interview, Votel said his visit had hardened his belief that the US is taking the right approach to developing local forces to fight the Islamic State.
“I left with increased confidence in their capabilities and our ability to support them,” he said.
“I think that model is working and working well,” he added.
The US has struggled to find an effective force to take on the Islamic State in Syria, where Obama has ruled out a US ground combat role. This presents a different problem than in Iraq, where the US at least has a government to partner with.
The problem in Syria is complicated by the fractured nature of the opposition to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The US is trying to develop credible Arab fighters to retake al-Raqqah, the Islamic State’s self-declared capital, while Syrian Kurds have retaken territory from the Islamic State in other parts of northern Syria.
The US is supporting what it calls the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is predominantly comprised of Syrian Kurds, numbering at least 25,000 fighters, with a smaller element of Syrian Arabs, numbering perhaps 5,000 to 6,000. The US is trying to increase the Arab numbers.
Syrian Arab commanders who were made available for interviews at the US camp on Saturday said their forces are gaining battlefield momentum, but also need a lot more help. They were quick to say the US-led coalition should pitch in more.
Syrian Democratic Forces deputy commander Qarhaman Hasan said he has given the US a list of his most pressing needs. Atop his list: armored vehicles, heavy weapons like machine guns, as well as rocket launchers and mortars.
“We’re creating an army” and have had to rely on smuggling to get weapons, he said.
“You can’t run an army on smuggling,” he added.
Tribal leaders said in interviews that they also want to see the US do more, both militarily and with humanitarian aid.
“America has the capabilities,” Sheik Abu Khalid said.
Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Talal Selo was especially strong in his criticism of the US for providing too little assistance and for giving the group “very useless” support.
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