[NEWS] Exclusive: U.S.-backed Syrian forces halt counter-Islamic State operations -sources – Loganspace AI

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[NEWS] Exclusive: U.S.-backed Syrian forces halt counter-Islamic State operations -sources – Loganspace AI


WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters enjoy halted operations for now against Islamic Issue in Syria as Turkey launches a armed forces offensive in Syria’s northeast, two U.S. officials and a Kurdish armed forces source acknowledged on Wednesday.

“The SDF stopped the anti-ISIS operations because it’s impossible to make any operation whereas you is liable to be being threatened by a colossal navy appropriate on the northern border,” the Kurdish armed forces source acknowledged.

One in all the U.S. officials, who spoke on situation of anonymity, acknowledged the suspension furthermore impacted U.S. training of stabilization forces in Syria.

It used to be unclear whether the halt affected every facet of U.S.-partnered operations against Islamic Issue or whether there can also simply be exceptions. The U.S. armed forces used to be not straight away on hand for comment.

But any suspension in such actions would signify an instantaneous setback to the central U.S. aim of serving to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) staunch territory seized from Islamic Issue.

It can per chance furthermore tell how the Kurdish-led SDF are rapid transferring their focal point to the combat against Turkey — at the value of preparations to forestall Islamic Issue’s resurgence.

Turkish warplanes and artillery struck Kurdish militia positions in different cities on Wednesday after the usa this week pulled abet its troops from the Turkey-Syria frontier following a possibility by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump’s critics roar his pass cleared the potential for the Turkish operation and amounted to a betrayal of The United States’s allies, the Kurds. U.S. officials roar the president felt U.S. troops must tranquil not be caught in the midst of that combat, and Trump says he is stress-free promises to withdraw the usa from “limitless” Heart East wars.

The Kurdish fighters, regarded as as terrorists by Turkey, enjoy described the U.S. possibility as “a stab in the abet”. Spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia, the SDF has been the backbone of the U.S.-led marketing campaign against Islamic Issue.

The U.S. armed forces had hoped to prepare SDF and slightly about a teams to make a stabilization pressure of 50,000-60,000 fighters to succor prevent a resurgence of Islamic Issue. As of most practical month, the U.S. armed forces estimated it used to be almost definitely about halfway toward that aim.

A third legitimate knowledgeable Reuters that the SDF used to be tranquil guarding prisons conserving some 11,000 captured Islamic Issue fighters, but current that a tiny possibility of SDF forces had relocated sooner than the expected Turkish offensive.

U.S. officials enjoy prolonged feared that the SDF might per chance per chance be unable to proceed guarding the services in the match of a most important Turkish incursion into Syria.

Quiet, Islamic Issue remnants can also pressure the SDF to combat it as smartly.

Jennifer Cafarella, analysis director at the Institute for the Look of Battle mediate-tank in Washington, acknowledged the SDF confronted the seemingly prospect of attending to combat on two fronts: against Turkish forces and remnants of Islamic Issue simultaneously.

“ISIS leader (Abu Bakr al-)Baghdadi is definitely prepared for this moment,” Cafarella acknowledged, the mumble of an acronym for Islamic Issue.

On the tip of its vitality Islamic Issue dominated over thousands and thousands of of us in territory working from northern Syria via cities and cities along the Tigris and Euphrates valleys to the outskirts of Baghdad in neighboring Iraq.

However the autumn in 2017 of Mosul and Raqqa, its strongholds in Iraq and Syria respectively, stripped Baghdadi of the trimmings of a caliph and luxuriate in change into him correct into a fugitive plan to be transferring along the desolate tract border between Iraq and Syria.

U.S. officials were warning for months against losing focal point on Islamic Issue, which they suspect can also another time change correct into a potent insurgency.

Reporting by Phil Stewart and Ellen Francis; Editing by Chris Reese and Peter Graff

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