US-backed force in Syria warns of ISIS resurgence

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correctly reflect the number of people living at the Al Hol camp.

Escalating conflict in the Middle East and attacks by Iranian-backed groups from Iraq and Syria are creating an opening for the Islamic State to reemerge, the top military commander for U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in Syria warned Thursday.

Mazloum Abdi, the general commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), gave a briefing over Zoom to journalists in Washington, laying out what he views are urgent threats facing his troops, who are a key security force keeping ISIS from reconstituting itself. 

The U.S. has approximately 900 troops present in northeastern Syria, working alongside the SDF as part of the international coalition for the defeat of ISIS.

Abdi raised alarm that increased attacks from Iranian-allied groups in the region are impacting security operations. 

“With all these tensions and all these attacks on our forces and in our areas from different and multiple sides, we’re seeing that ISIS is taking the benefit from all these attacks. We have also seen a spike in movements from ISIS,” Abdi said from his base in northeastern Syria. 

Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria have increased attacks against U.S. troops and positions in the region since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the resulting war in the Gaza Strip, with the killing of three U.S. service members in Jordan late last month further ratcheting up tensions and triggering dozens of U.S. retaliatory strikes in the region.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, as close allies of the U.S., have also come under attack, with six of its soldiers killed earlier this week in an attack from an Iranian-backed militia in Syria that hit a base where U.S. troops are present. 

Abdi said the attacks are aimed at trying to push the U.S. out of the region. 

“We’ve seen that the main goal behind these attacks on our joint bases — SDF and international coalition bases — is to force the U.S. and coalition forces to withdraw from Syria,” Abdi said.

“All these attacks and growing challenges further complicate the battle against ISIS.”

The SDF has started limiting its movements and security operations because of the increased attacks and threats of attack, impacting their ability to monitor threats from ISIS in the region, secure detention centers housing ISIS fighters and monitor efforts at radicalization at the Al Hol camp for families that lived under ISIS, housing an estimated 52,000 people, according to the U.N.

The SDF reportedly announced late last month it had captured 31 ISIS members inside al Hol camp as part of a security operation dubbed Operation Humanity and Security. 

“The main goal of ISIS, the first one and the most important one, is to break out all their inmates from detention centers in our areas, and their long-term goal is to gain territorial control over areas under our control or other areas,” Abdi said.

Turkish strikes against the SDF and in Kurdish-controlled areas in Syria are further threatening the security of the region, Abdi said. He asked for the U.S. to exercise more influence over Ankara to halt attacks that he said are targeting civilian and military infrastructure. 

Turkey views Kurdish groups in Syria as a terrorist threat. The U.S. has acknowledged Ankara’s security concerns related to Kurdish groups such as the Kurdistan Workers Party but earlier warned that Turkish military operations have threatened U.S. troops working alongside the SDF. 

In October, the U.S. shot down a Turkish drone in northeastern Syria, saying it was a potential threat to American troops in the region. 

“Since the shootdown of [a] Turkish drone by the U.S. Air Force, we’re not seeing there’s intention by the Turkish [forces] to get close to U.S. bases … as happened last year,” he said.

But Abdi said the SDF is concerned about U.S. sales of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey that were approved after Ankara followed through on approving Sweden’s accession to NATO. Some U.S. lawmakers, while holding back from blocking the F-16 sales to Turkey, pushed the Biden administration to tell Turkey not to threaten the Kurds. 

“Some things that can be done is that the U.S. government may tell the Turks that these F-16s should not be used against Kurds in Syria, because we are concerned that they will be using these aircrafts against us,” he said.

Updated at 3:08 p.m.