The top US commander in the Middle East on Thursday signaled that there would be a larger and longer US military presence in Syria to accelerate the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group and quell friction within the complicated mix of warring factions there.
US General Joseph Votel, head of US Central Command, told US senators that he will need more conventional US forces to insure stability once the fight to defeat US militants in their self-declared capital of Raqqa is over.
The US military, he said, cannot just leave once the fight is over because the Syrians will need help keeping IS out and ensuring the peaceful transition to local control.
Photo: AP
Votel’s testimony to the US Senate Armed Services Committee comes as up to 400 US forces have moved into Syria in recent days. Well more than half of those are marines, bringing in large artillery guns for the Raqqa fight, and the rest are army rangers who went into northern Syria to tamp down skirmishes between Turkish and Syrian forces near the border. The numbers have been fluctuating, often on a daily basis, as troops move in and out.
“I think as we move towards the latter part of these operations into more of the stability and other aspects of the operations, we will see more conventional forces requirements,” Votel said.
Until recently, the US military presence in Syria was made up of special operations forces advising and assisting the US-backed Syrian troops.
It will be critical, Votel said, to get humanitarian aid, basic working services and good local leaders in place in Raqqa so that businesses can return and the city can move on.
He also told senators that the US is looking for options to ease the tensions with Turkey over the plan to use US-backed Syrian Kurds in the fight to oust Islamic State fighters from Raqqa.
However, he offered no details on what those options could be.
The US is considering arming the Syrian Kurdish forces, which the Pentagon considers the most effective fighters against IS militants in northern and eastern Syria. However, Turkey, a key NATO ally, considers the Syrian force, known as the YPG, a terrorist organization. Turkey wants to work with other Syrian opposition fighters known as the Free Syrian Army to liberate Raqqa.
Pentagon leaders sent a new plan to defeat IS to the White House late last month that included a variety of options for the ongoing fight in Iraq and Syria. The White House has not yet approved the plans, but the recent deployments into Syria suggest that US President Donald Trump might be leaning toward giving the Pentagon greater flexibility to make routine combat decisions in the IS fight.
Military commanders frustrated by what they considered micromanagement under the previous US administration have argued for greater freedom to make daily decisions on how best to fight the enemy.
In separate comments, Votel also reaffirmed that more US forces are needed in Afghanistan, a point the top US commander in that country made to the US Congress several weeks ago.
Votel agreed that the fight against the Taliban is in a stalemate and said “it will involve additional forces” to ensure the US can better advise and assist the Afghan forces.
US General John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, last month told the US Senate Armed Services Committee that he needs a few thousand more troops to help end the stalemate there.
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