US Central Command said its chief met with Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria and urged the repatriation of foreign ISIS fighters, as Kurds battle Turkey-backed groups in the region.
General Michael Kurilla met United States military commanders and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Thursday “to get an assessment” of efforts to defeat ISIS and prevent its regional resurgence, as well as “the evolving situation in Syria,” a CENTCOM statement said.
The US and other Western countries as well as Syria’s neighbors have emphasized the need for the country’s new rulers to combat “terrorism and extremism.”
Supported by the US, the SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted ISIS from Syria in 2019 and controls dozens of prisons and camps where thousands of militants and their suspected relatives, including foreigners, are held.
CENTCOM, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, said Kurilla visited the Al-Hol camp which, together with a smaller facility, houses more than 40,000 people, many of them with ties to ISIS.
It added that “without international repatriation, rehabilitation, and reintegration efforts,” such camps “risk creating the next generation” of ISIS members.
An additional 9,000 ISIS detainees “from over 50 different countries remain in over a dozen SDF guarded detention facilities in Syria,” CENTCOM said.
Neighboring Turkey, a key backer of opposition fighters who ousted longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad last month, sees the main component of the SDF, the YPG People’s Protection Units, as affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Both Turkey and the United States consider the PKK a “terrorist” group. It has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.
Hundreds killed
Turkey has been threatening to launch a military operation against the SDF, prompting US-led diplomatic efforts to avert a major confrontation even as fighting continues.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Friday that battles between the SDF and Turkey-backed fighters in the Manbij region and near a strategic dam had killed 401 people since December 12, most of them combatants.
Turkey has offered Syria’s new leadership operational support in the fight against extremist groups, and even offered to help run prisons holding ISIS fighters.
Earlier this month, the SDF said it held talks with Syria’s new authorities and expressed support for Syrian “unity.”
During a visit to Ankara this week, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said Syria would never allow its territory to be used as a staging ground for threats against Turkey.
Syria would “work on removing these threats,” he said, referring to the SDF, the de-facto army of the semi-autonomous Kurdish-led administration that controls swathes of northeastern Syria.
On Thursday in Iraq, SDF chief Mazloum Abdi met Masoud Barzani, who heads the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region, a statement from Barzani’s office said.
It noted the need for Syria’s Kurds “to reach understandings and agreements with the new authorities.”
The United States maintains troops in northern Syria as part of an anti-extremist coalition.
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