ISIS Resurgent in Syria: WSJ Report
The Journal report is similar to the KRG perspective: ISIS remains a significant threat.
WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – ISIS is re-establishing itself in Syria, as The Wall Street Journal, one of America’s leading newspapers, has reported.
The Journal report is very similar to the perspective of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) regarding ISIS in Iraq. The terrorist organization is not defeated. Rather, it remains a significant threat.
WSJ on Resurgent ISIS
“American commandos are scrambling to contain a resurgence of Islamic State [ISIS]” in Syria’s Badiya desert, the Journal reported on Monday. The Badiya desert lies some 150 kilometers west of Deir ez-Zor.
There, ISIS is “training young recruits to become suicide bombers” and “directing attacks on allied troops,” the Journal stated, citing officers from both the U.S. and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF.)
“They have doubled their pace of attacks on Syria and Iraq,” it said, as ISIS has “targeted security checkpoints, detonated car bombs, and plotted to free thousands” of ISIS members detained in SDF prisons.
“In a little-publicized campaign, American aircraft conduct airstrikes and provide live aerial surveillance to SDF ground forces who conduct raids on suspected Islamic State cells,” the Journal explained. U.S. Special Forces, who are working with the SDF, “usually stay a safe distance from the fighting,” it said, but they “sometimes conduct missions on their own to kill or capture senior Islamic State leaders.”
The Journal described a major operation last month, in which the SDF, backed by U.S. Special Forces, targeted eight compounds housing suspected ISIS fighters.
The operation was planned over a six week period, the Journal explained. U.S. drones and Apache attack helicopters provided “aerial surveillance to help commandos spot patterns of people entering and leaving key buildings.”
Early on the morning of the raid, over 100 SDF troops “staggered their movements to arrive simultaneously at their assigned targets spread out over a 10-mile stretch of villages,” the Journal said, stressing both the size of the ISIS presence in eastern Syria, as well as the difficulty and magnitude of the operation against the terrorist group.
The carefully-controlled SDF troop movement—which was successful—aimed to prevent any ISIS fighters from warning others about the allied offensive.
“The SDF arrested a dozen people, without firing a shot,” the Journal reported, citing a U.S. Special Forces officer.
Once the SDF controlled the compounds used by ISIS, U.S. forces seized the cellphones in the houses within the compounds to get a better idea of ISIS’s local operations, including exploiting the phones’ call histories to find other ISIS fighters.
“We do know this absolutely disrupted planned attacks on Coalition and SDF personnel,” a U.S. Special Forces officer told the Journal.
In addition, a spokesman for the SDF’s internal security forces warned against any premature withdrawal.
“We’ll see chaos like we’ve never seen before,” Brig. Ben. Ali al-Hassan said. “Any withdrawal will cause the immediate activation of sleeper cells.”
KRG Position is Similar
Maj. Gen. Abdul Khaliq Talaat, the KRG Representative to Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, spoke with Kurdistan 24 last month.
Talaat was clear that ISIS remained a significant danger to the Kurdistan Region and to Iraq more broadly.
ISIS continues to attack Iraqi security forces on a weekly or, at least, a monthly basis, Talaat said.
Read More: ISIS remains a persistent threat to Iraq's security, warns Kurdistan Region Major General
Talaat cited a recent ISIS attack in a subdistrict of Kirkuk, which killed one person and injured another.
In expressing his condolences, KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani stressed that the attack demonstrated that ISIS remained a significant threat.
Read More: PM Barzani expressed condolences to the victim of ISIS attack in Qarahanjir
And the day before that attack, there was another ISIS assault in Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad. That attack killed four members of Iraq’s security forces.
Read More: Four members of Iraq's security forces Killed in Diyala province