U.S. Reaffirms Continued Fight against ISIS
Singh repeatedly reaffirmed that the U.S. remained committed to ensuring the defeat of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Jan 4, 2025
WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) Addressing reporters on Friday, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh repeatedly reaffirmed that the U.S. remained committed to ensuring the defeat of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
She spoke against the backdrop of two major developments. One is the victory of Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Syria, following the panicked flight of the former Baathist leader, Bashar al-Assad, on December 8.
Although there are questions as to what extent HTS will try to impose an extremist ideology on Syria, the group is backed by Turkey, which appears to exert strong influence in guiding the HTS to adopt a position acceptable to the international community.
That has been reflected in early contacts between the new Syrian leadership and European powers, as well as key Arab countries.
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Turkey appears to see the political process that establishes the position of HTS in Syria as a way to limit the activities of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has been America’s primary local partner in the fight against ISIS in Syria.
For its part, the U.S. has mediated a ceasefire between HTS and the SDF. On Dec. 30, Singh affirmed that the ceasefire between the two groups was working.
“There is a ceasefire that is still holding in the northern part of Syria, and we’re going to continue to monitor that,” she said, before adding, “but we’re still focused on the mission that’s in Syria, which is to ensure the defeat of ISIS.”
Singh repeated much the same on Friday. “We certainly have encouraged and welcome the cessation of hostilities between SDF and other forces in that region,” she stated.
“We’re continuing to work and focus on our mission,” she added, which is “to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS.”
ISIS-Linked Attack in New Orleans
That mission—ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS—appears to have gained in importance following an attack in a famous tourist area in New Orleans that killed 14 people.
Early in the morning of Jan. 1, a U.S. Army veteran, who had been honorably discharged in 2020, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, plowed a truck which he had rented in Houston, where he lived, into a crowd celebrating the New Year in New Orleans’ famous French quarter.
Jabbar was a convert to Islam and had embraced an extremist vision of the religion. He fastened an ISIS flag to the rear of his rented truck. And as he drove to New Orleans, he recorded five videos and posted them to his Facebook account.
He also seems to have been very confused, perhaps, suffering a mental disability. That, at least, is what his first video, as described by the FBI, would suggest.
The video was posted at 1:29 AM on Dec. 31. In it, Jabbar explained that “he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers,’” as FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia, of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, told reporters.
Jabbar also said that “he had joined ISIS before this summer,” Raia added, and “provided his will and testament.”
Singh, when asked about the great from ISIS in light of the New Orleans attack, responded, “ISIS retains capabilities, as we’ve seen in Iraq and Syria, and that’s why we have our forces in both of those countries to ensure that ISIS can never reconstitute or resurge or surge back to what it was just a decade ago.”