The US military published a quarterly report on ISIS to Congress on Tuesday that said the group is a “low-level” threat but warned it could operate “indefinitely” in the remote deserts of Syria.
The US presence in Iraq and Syria is under the umbrella of the US-led anti-ISIS coalitions. Washington does not want to give up its occupation of either country, so even though ISIS no longer holds significant territory, the US military has an interest in inflating the threat from the group.
“Coalition partners in Iraq and Syria continued to rely on Coalition support to conduct operations, and ISIS remained entrenched as a low-level insurgency,” the Pentagon’s inspector general wrote in an introduction to the report.
According to the report, US Central Command said ISIS “likely has sufficient manpower and resources to operate indefinitely at its present level in the Syrian desert.” CENTCOM also identified ways that the “desert environment limits the capacity of ISIS to grow or strengthen its insurgency there.”
The US has about 900 troops in northeast Syria. On paper, the US mission is to help the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces fight ISIS. But the occupation is also part of Washington’s economic warfare against the government in Damascus. On top of crippling sanctions, the region of Syria where US troops are deployed is where most of the country’s oil fields are, keeping the vital resource out of the hands of Damascus.
The Biden administration recently announced it is ending the US “combat” mission in Iraq by the end of this year. But the US will keep troops in the country under an advisory role. There are currently about 2,500 US troops in Iraq, and it’s not clear how many will be pulled out once the mission is changed.
Besides supporting the Iraqi government in its fight against ISIS, the US occasionally bombs Iraq’s Shia militias, who are sworn enemies of ISIS, and fought on the same side as Washington during major battles from 2014 to 2017.
More “desert people” fiction. There are no true deserts in Syria. There are some less hospitable areas, due to lack of water and thus not suitable for habitation.
But Syria is not a large country, and such areas are not large enough to hide anything — especially not an insurgent force of any size. Helicopter flyovers would easily identify location of any man made structures suitable for hiding militants. Their vehicles, training grounds, their supply lines — impossible to hide.
No, ISIS is not “weakened” there. ISIS is NONEXISTENT. Hanging around Syria-Iraqi border regions , as article states, has nothing to do with insurgency, and everything with clutching the territory to prevent normalcy. It is to prevent Syria and Iraq controlling their own borders, reestablishing trade, improving transport and infrastructure.
This is another one of those money generating projects that also conveniently implant themselves as permanent fixture in the Middle East. Thus, getting almost guaranteed funding approval for years to come.
Lack of development and permanent military occupation is a formula for creating mercenary forces, to keep area suitably destabilized till next Congressional report.
Iraq is unfortunately too weak to establish a regular border controls manned by regular army, not their Shia auxiliaries. Until that happens, myth of desert people would continue.
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“There are currently about 2,500 US troops in Iraq, and it’s not clear how many will be pulled out once the mission is changed.”
None.
“US Military Report Warns ISIS Will Operate ‘Indefinitely’ “___ That is because ISIS is funded by US military….!