US says to cooperate with QSD again

Muazz Mohamed

Commander of the United States Central Command, Kenneth F. McKenzie, said on November 23 that around 500 American troops had been deployed in eastern Syria to fight the Islamic State group.

He expected operations against the Islamic State to intensify in the coming days.

McKenzie, who was participating in the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, noted that American the troops are deployed in the area between east of the Euphrates and the northeastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zur.

He said the US has plans to keep the troops in this area and cooperate with Syrian Democratic Forces, widely known as QSD, in the fight against the Islamic State.

Return

On October 7, 2019, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, gave his consent to operation “Peace Spring” in northeastern Syria. US troops pulled out of the same area at the orders of US President Donald Trump. Trump’s move was viewed as “betrayal” of the Kurds who helped Washington fight the Islamic State group.

The US came under fire for letting the Kurds down, especially with the US pullout making the Turkish operation easy. The operation had caused the death of a large number of civilians in the area.

New birth

The US pullout also helped a large number of Islamic State fighters escape from Kurdish jails. This gave rise to fears in Europe from the return of these fighters to their countries where they would become ticking time bombs.

Erdogan also uses Islamic State fighters in his custody as a pressure card against the Europeans.

The American political opinion magazine, The Politico, published a report on October 19 in which it said that the American pullout from northern Syria would cause the Islamic State group to be reborn in the area.

It added that the same pullout would allow the terrorists to launch renewed attacks against European states.

Oil

The US is in northern Syria, not only to fight the Islamic State. It is also afraid that the area’s oil wells will fall in the hands of this terrorist organization.

On October 24, the Pentagon said it would boost military presence in northeastern Syria to protect oilfields.

A US military official said controlling the oilfields was one of his country’s most important gains because oil gave the group an important source of income.