{"id":15662,"date":"2019-01-17T09:25:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T07:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/?p=15662"},"modified":"2019-01-17T09:25:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T07:25:04","slug":"reacting-on-trumps-policy-islamic-state-kill-4-americans-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/?p=15662","title":{"rendered":"Reacting on Trump\u2019s policy, Islamic State Kill 4 Americans in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Washington Post – The four Americans killed in Manbij, Syria on Wednesday \u2014 two soldiers, a Defense Department civilian and a military contractor \u2014 matched the largest number of deaths from hostile fire in a single incident overseas since Donald Trump became president.<\/p>\n

The killings,\u00a0in a suicide explosion claimed by the Islamic State<\/a>, came less than a month after Trump declared the militants defeated and ordered that the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria be withdrawn.<\/p>\n

Since then, the administration\u2019s strategy has been thrown into confusion, as Trump\u2019s defense secretary resigned in protest. The announced pace of withdrawal has varied, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has sought aid from Arab allies. New conditions have been set for the U.S. departure, even as the president has said he is\u00a0determined that the troops leave sooner rather than later<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other powers have rushed to fill the coming void, including Turkey, Russia and the government of Iranian-backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n

Manbij, wrested from the militants by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters and American air power in 2016, is a nexus of the interests and conflicts of the many players in Syria. As various interests squabbled in recent months over political and military control of the town, 25 miles south of the Turkish border, the Islamic State was the one actor that appeared to have been eliminated from the contest.<\/p>\n

Instead, the bombing showed that it is likely to remain a force to be reckoned with in Syria for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Though the attack seemed to belie Trump\u2019s claims about the militants\u2019 defeat, those who have supported the U.S. withdrawal said it proved he is right to claim a win on his own terms and get out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stand with the president in putting #AmericaFirst, bringing our troops home and declaring victory,\u201d Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said in a Twitter post as he headed for the White House to see Trump. After they spoke, Paul issued a statement saying he had \u201cnever been prouder\u201d of the president, who \u201cstood up for a strong America and steadfastly opposed foreign wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

But others said the bombing deaths \u2014 which included an unknown number of Manbij residents and Syrian Kurdish fighters \u2014 were a direct result of a foolish and abrupt departure announcement, and had made the case for staying.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning, I thought the president was wrong\u201d in ordering the withdrawal, said Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. \u201cIt was a strategic mistake for the whole region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump himself said nothing, issuing no public statement about the U.S. casualties \u2014 including at least three wounded by the bomb \u2014 or how the administration would respond.<\/p>\n

Instead, it was left to\u00a0Vice President Pence<\/a>\u00a0to issue a statement, which he said was on behalf of the president and himself, condemning the \u201cterrorist attack\u201d and commiserating with the loved ones of the dead. \u201cWe have crushed the ISIS caliphate and devastated its capabilities,\u201d he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. \u201cAs we begin to bring our troops home .\u2009.\u2009. we will never allow the remnants of ISIS to reestablish their evil and murderous caliphate \u2014 not now, not ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four deaths doubled the total number of U.S. personnel killed by hostile fire in Syria since the deployment there began just over three years ago. It matched the number of Special Operations troops killed in a militant attack in Niger in October 2017.<\/p>\n

By separating the destruction of the self-declared Islamic State caliphate that once spanned large portions of Syria and Iraq from the existence of some 20,000-30,000 militants that U.S. officials believe remain in the two countries, the administration has carved out a relatively narrow definition of its objective.<\/p>\n

But for some experts, it is the only realistic goal. \u201cManbij was captured two and a half years ago,\u201d when a U.S.-armed and trained ground force, composed largely of Syrian Kurds, expelled the Islamic State with the help of withering U.S. air attacks, said Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria who is now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like there wasn\u2019t stabilization progress in Manbij,\u201d a north-central Syrian city about 25 miles from the Turkish border. \u201cManbij was a showcase back in 2017,\u201d Ford said. What happened there Wednesday \u201cis why I, at least, believe you can\u2019t fix ISIS with Americans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIraqis have to fix it; Syrians have to fix it,\u201d Ford said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not something that non-Arabic-speaking, non-Kurdish-speaking \u2014 however capable, dedicated and smart \u2014 American Special Ops guys are going to be able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. troops are stationed in and around Manbij as part of an agreement with Turkey. Ankara has long objected to the presence there of the Syrian Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units, or YPG \u2014 the bulk of the U.S.-aligned force fighting the Islamic State. Turkey considers them terrorists allied with Turkish Kurdish separatists.<\/p>\n

Last year, to prevent a threatened attack by Turkish forces accompanied by Turkey\u2019s Syrian Arab allies, the administration agreed to ease the occupying YPG out of Manbij and east of the nearby Euphrates River. U.S. and Turkish military forces would then jointly patrol the area around the town, a process that began late last year even as the Kurdish force largely remained.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Assad\u2019s Syrian forces moved ever-closer to the town, hoping to reclaim the territory. This month, Russian ground forces also began patrols on the western side of Manbij.<\/p>\n

Russia and Turkey hailed the U.S. decision to withdraw troops from across northeastern Syria, where the Americans have, in effect, been a bulwark between Turkish forces massed along the border and the Syrian Kurdish fighters who occupy both Arab and Kurdish border towns.<\/p>\n

It was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s complaints about this situation \u2014 and a pledge to take over the remaining fight against Islamic State forces that have been driven far to the south \u2014 that prompted Trump\u2019s sudden agreement, in a Dec. 14 telephone call with the Turkish leader, to withdraw.<\/p>\n

The decision appeared to fly in the face of the U.S. strategy announced last September, when senior administration officials said that American troops would remain until the militants were defeated, a protective arrangement had been worked out for the Syrian Kurdish fighters and, most important, Iran and its proxy forces aiding Assad had left the country.<\/p>\n

During visits this month to Israel and Turkey, White House national security adviser John Bolton insisted that those objectives still would be met. They were conditions to which Trump appeared to acquiesce, although he has been vague in giving public voice to his agreement. Turkey called Bolton\u2019s comments \u201ca serious mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. and Turkish military officials have discussed the establishment of a \u201csafe zone\u201d inside Syria along the border with Turkey, although it remains unclear whether their ideas coincide on who would protect it and against whom.<\/p>\n

The Manbij attack, Erdogan said Wednesday in Ankara, according to Turkish media accounts, \u201cmight have been meant to affect\u201d Trump\u2019s withdrawal decision. But any delay, he said, would be \u201ca backward step\u201d and a \u201cvictory\u201d for the militants.<\/p>\n

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated that his government had its own plans for the border area. \u201cWe are convinced that the transfer of these territories to the control of the Syrian government [and] the Syrian armed forces .\u2009.\u2009. is the best and only right way,\u201d Lavrov told reporters.<\/p>\n

Russia announced that President Vladi\u00admir Putin and Erdogan will meet in Moscow next week to discuss the situation, \u201cin light of Washington\u2019s announced plans to withdraw its troops from Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post – The four Americans killed in Manbij, Syria on Wednesday \u2014 two soldiers, a Defense Department civilian and a military contractor \u2014 matched the largest number of deaths from hostile fire in a single incident overseas since Donald Trump became president. The killings,\u00a0in a suicide explosion claimed by the Islamic State, came …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4220,388],"tags":[8087,995,3935,3499,8085,1750,8086],"class_list":["post-15662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-slide","tag-4-americans","tag-in-syria","tag-islamic","tag-kill","tag-reacting-on","tag-state","tag-trumps-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15664,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15662\/revisions\/15664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}