IS Can Reemerge In Syria Within A Year If US Disengages - Military Chief

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2019) The Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, banned in Russia) can reappear in Syria within a year if the United States ceases its military activities there, US Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley said in a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

"My assessment at this point is that if we do not retain an intelligence capability that allows us to collect and see and then act with a strike capability on ISIS [IS] in Syria then the conditions for re-emergence of ISIS will happen," Milley told the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. "It will take some time, it will probably take maybe six to twelve months, but ISIS will reemerge if the US went to zero."

The United States has reduced its military presence in Syria, but, according to Milley and Pentagon Chief Mark Esper, also present at the hearings, continues day-to-day military operations there together with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

"Although the recent Turkish incursion [in the north east of Syria] has complicated this battle space the Department of Defense remains confident that we can continue the mission the president has given us in Syria which is to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS," Esper said.

He told the panel that after drawbacks in the face of Turkey's campaign against Kurdish militias the Pentagon retained 500-600 troops in Syria's northeast and also supported SDF operations with intelligence and air power. He assumed that complete withdrawal would be possible when local forces were able to continue the anti-ISIS campaign on their own.