A joint Coalition-Kurdish operation targeted remaining ISIL forces in northeast Syria.
U.S.-backed forces are carrying out new raids against militants affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) terror group in eastern Syria.
The new campaign led by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) targets remnants of IS in Deir al-Zour province, which borders Iraq.
The SDF, a Kurdish-led military alliance, said its ongoing operations have been focused on active IS cells in the northern part of the province.
“On December 26, our Special Forces and International Coalition Forces arrested a member of a terrorist cell north of Deir al-Zour, during a joint raid operation,” the SDF said in a statement Sunday.
Wait. What? I thought Trump abandoned the Syrian Kurds? As I wrote about that accusation:
We aren't abandoning the Syrian Kurds. We are abandoning the Kurds' goal to hold the border region which anti-Turkish Kurds need to fight Turkey.
We've been trying to protect the Kurds in that border area but we've run out of stalling tactics. The Turks were coming in and we could fight the Turks or get out of the way. What should we have done under those circumstances?
This is bad. I don't like siding with Erdogan over the Syrian Kurds. I don't deny that. But it could be worse.
Again, America is not abandoning the Syrian Kurds, as our officials have stated[.]
A year later American-backed Kurds with American help are still fighting our common jihadi enemies.
