2019 thus far is the second highest amount of pounds of cargo dropped in support of OIR since the U.S. launched operations to combat ISIS militants rampaging the region in 2014.
The future of the five-year fight against Islamic State militants is unclear, along with the entire strategy underpinning the U.S. troop presence in the U.S. Central Command region.
A former U.S. military intelligence operator who spent years working with special operations forces told Military Times that the potential spillover of sensitive tradecraft or information by the SDF was “super problematic," but also a symptom of the lack of a genuine strategy in the region.
With the U.S. out of the picture, the stage is set for a potential bloody conflict between the major players in Syria’s civil war that has raged since 2011.
The U.S.-trained force has been abandoned by its American partners and is under sustained assault by Turkish forces and their ragtag crew of proxy fighters — some who have reportedly fought under ISIS and al-Qaida banners.
No U.S. troops were injured in the strike, but U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said American commandos temporarily withdrew from their observation post on Mishtanur hill near Kobani and returned on Saturday.
SMART news agency said it spoke to the leader of the U.S. commando patrol who told SMART that “their forces will target the Turkish army if it advances inside Syrian territory more than the agreed distance between the United States and Turkey,” according to a translation of the Arabic caption describing the video.