{"id":31998,"date":"2019-02-06T00:23:09","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T00:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=31998"},"modified":"2019-02-06T00:23:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T00:23:09","slug":"us-general-in-middle-east-daesh-hold-in-syria-iraq-on-verge-of-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=31998","title":{"rendered":"US general in Middle East: Daesh hold in Syria, Iraq on verge of collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nWASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is expected to declare near-total triumph over the Daesh group in Syria in his State of the Union address, but US defense officials are increasingly fearful that the militants are simply biding their time until the Americans leave the battlefield as planned.<\/p>\n

\nDaesh militants have lost territory since Trump\u2019s surprise announcement in December that he was pulling US forces out, but military officials warn the fighters could regroup within six months to a year after the Americans leave.<\/p>\n

\nA Defense Department watchdog report released Monday warned of just such a possibility.<\/p>\n

\nThe Daesh group \u201cremains a potent force of battle-hardened and well-disciplined fighters that \u2018could likely resurge in Syria\u2019 absent continued counterterrorism pressure,\u201d the report from the inspector general said.<\/p>\n

\nHowever, the top commander of US\u00a0forces in the Middle East, General Joseph Votel, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that of the 34,000 square miles of territory that Daesh once held, it now controls less than 20 square miles.<\/p>\n

\nVotel told the committee that it was important to understand that even though the territory has been reclaimed, the fight against Daesh\u00a0and “violent extremists” was not over and that the “mission has not changed.”<\/p>\n

\n“The coalition’s hard-won battlefield gains can only be secured by maintaining a vigilant offensive against the now largely dispersed and disaggregated ISIS that retains leaders, fighters, facilitators, resources and the profane ideology that fuels their efforts,” he said, using a term used to describe Daesh.<\/p>\n

\nVotel said there are now between 1,000 and 1,500 Daesh fighters in the small area they still control in the southern part of the Euphrates River Valley near the Iraqi border. The remainder, he said, have “dispersed” and “gone to ground,” suggesting they retain the potential to return.<\/p>\n

\nTrump\u2019s decision to leave Syria, which he initially said would be rapid but later slowed down, shocked US allies led to the resignations of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the top envoy to the anti- Daesh coalition, Brett McGurk.<\/p>\n

\nThe withdrawal will fulfill Trump\u2019s goal of bringing troops home from Syria, but military leaders have pushed back for months, arguing that Daesh remains a threat and could regroup. US policy has been to keep troops in place until the extremists are eradicated.<\/p>\n

\nFears that Daesh fighters are making strategic maneuvers ahead of a US pullout could also fuel criticism that Trump is telegraphing his military plans \u2014 the same thing he accused President Barack Obama of doing in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\nUS officials in recent weeks say Daesh has lost 99.5 percent of its territory and is holding on to fewer than 10 square kilometers of turf in Syria \u2014 an area smaller than New York\u2019s Central Park. In late November and December that figure had been estimated at between 400 and 600 square kilometers, according to officials briefed on the matter.<\/p>\n

\nBut several defense officials said Monday that many fighters fled to ungoverned spaces and other pockets in the north and in the west and are likely hiding out until they can regroup.<\/p>\n

\nTrump said in a weekend interview that the caliphate is \u201calmost knocked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe\u2019re at 99 percent right now, we\u2019ll be at 100,\u201d he said on CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nUS officials say that Daesh fighters hold only several villages in the Middle Euphrates River Valley that amount to significantly less than 10 square kilometers. But they say they don\u2019t expect that area to be cleared of militants for another several weeks, at best.<\/p>\n

\nOfficials say that overall, there are about 2,000 Daesh militants in Syria.<\/p>\n

\nThe Defense Department watchdog report warned that even with the Daesh forces on the run, the group \u201cis still able to coordinate offensives and counter-offensives, as well as operate as a decentralized insurgency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe report, which covers October through December 2018, also includes a classified section that was provided to Congress and includes a more detailed Pentagon assessment on the impact of the troops\u2019 withdrawal and the status of Daesh militants and other foreign fighters in Syria.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to the report, US Central Command believes that Daesh fighters will continue to conduct \u201copportunistic attacks\u201d on US troops as they withdraw. And it says, \u201cIf Sunni socio-economic, political, and sectarian grievances are not adequately addressed by the national and local governments of Iraq and Syria it is very likely that Daesh will have the opportunity to set conditions for future resurgence and territorial control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nCentral Command said that the Daesh group is \u201cregenerating key functions and capabilities more quickly in Iraq than in Syria,\u201d but unless there is sustained counterterrorism pressure, Daesh militants \u201ccould likely resurge in Syria within six to twelve months and regain limited territory\u201d in the Middle Euphrates River Valley.<\/p>\n

\nDespite Trump\u2019s order to withdraw, American officials maintain that the goal remains the \u201cenduring defeat\u201d of the Daesh group and are moving ahead with a long-planned meeting of top diplomats from the 79-member US-led anti- Daesh coalition this week. The aim of the conference is to recommit the coalition to that aim and ensure that the departure of US troops does not overly complicate that mission.<\/p>\n

\nTrump himself is expected to speak to the gathered foreign ministers at the State Department-hosted conference on Wednesday is widely expected to reiterate and expand on his anti- Daesh message from the State of the Union, officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is expected to declare near-total triumph over the Daesh group in Syria in his State of the Union address, but US defense officials are increasingly fearful that the militants are simply biding their time until the Americans leave the battlefield as planned. Daesh militants have lost territory since Trump\u2019s surprise announcement…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}