TerrorismU.S. Troop Withdrawal from Syria Would Give ISIS New Life: DoD Report

Published 7 August 2019

U.S. plans to keep just a residual force in Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of the Islamic State may be on the verge of backfiring, with some military officials warning the strategy is giving the terror group new life. The doubts, raised in a Defense Department Inspector General report released Tuesday, come as Washington has struggled to secure additional on-the-ground help in Syria from allies and amid renewed warnings that while IS may have lost control of its self-declared caliphate, the group’s fighters are far from defeated.

U.S. plans to keep just a residual force in Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of the Islamic State may be on the verge of backfiring, with some military officials warning the strategy is giving the terror group new life.

The doubts, raised in a Defense Department Inspector General report released Tuesday, come as Washington has struggled to secure additional on-the-ground help in Syria from allies and amid renewed warnings that while IS may have lost control of its self-declared caliphate, the group’s fighters are far from defeated.

Some of the strongest criticism for what the report described as Washington’s completed “partial withdrawal” from Syria is from officials with Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), the headquarters responsible for overseeing U.S. and coalition efforts against IS.

“According to CJTF-OIR, the reduction of U.S. forces has decreased the support available for Syrian partner forces at a time when their forces need more training and equipping to respond to the ISIS resurgence,” Principal Deputy Inspector General Glenn Fine wrote, using another acronym for Islamic State.

Additionally, coalition officials told the inspector general the drawdown could cause U.S.-backed forces, including the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to turn away from Washington and seek out “alternate partnerships and resources.”

“Detrimental” to U.S. Mission
CJTF-OIR warned that such developments could be “detrimental to the United States’ mission in Iraq and Syria.”

Neither the White House nor the Pentagon immediately responded to requests for comment on the report, which also identified other shortcomings with White House strategy and U.S. military efforts in Syria and Iraq.

U.S. President Donald Trump first announced the U.S. withdrawal from Syria this past December via Twitter.

But the announcement sparked significant divisions within the administration, especially from military officials, ultimately prompting then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign.

Later, the outgoing commander of U.S. military forces in the Middle East, General Joseph Votel, told lawmakers he was never even asked for advice.

“I was not consulted,” he said during a congressional appearance this past February.

Despite concerns, Pentagon officials proceeded with what they described as a deliberate and orderly withdrawal of most of the 2,200 U.S. troops in Syria, completing the drawdown in the months following the fall of IS’s last Syrian stronghold in late March.