ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Syrian Kurdish political representative and the chief of their armed forces on Thursday said the United States military needs to remain in Syria to continue countering the threat of the Islamic State (ISIS) and to support Kurds in northeast Syria (Rojava) until they reach an agreement with Damascus. “ISIS still exists. Until now, ISIS groups still increase and there are many activities against the region and the people of the region everywhere. The danger of ISIS continues until now. We know that US forces will pull out at some point. Now our request is that US forces remain until we can find a solution for the entirety of Syria,” Sinam Mohamad, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) representative to the US, told Rudaw. SDC is the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). SDF chief Mazloum Abdi voiced the same sentiment during an online press conference. “In my point of view, the danger of ISIS increases here, a security vacuum continues to grow. We need the US forces and we believe that if American troops pull out, a chaotic security situation could take place and affect the entire region, because ISIS is not only here, they move forward in other places as well. For this reason, I believe that for some time longer, we need US forces to stay so that we can work on fighting ISIS together,” he said. Mohamad also said it is important that Washington’s support for Kurds continues while Syria navigates its transition period after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Kurds are currently in talks with the new leadership in Damascus about their future. “Until we reach an agreement [with Damascus], I say it is needed for US forces to remain and support us until we reach a democratic Syria, a non-centralized Syria, a Syria for all peoples where Kurdish rights are secured,” she said. The US upped its presence of troops in Syria from 900 to around 2,000 after a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Assad’s regime on December 8. It has explained the surge in numbers as a temporary measure to prevent ISIS from regaining a foothold. US forces in Syria are the primary backers of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which territorially defeated ISIS in 2019 and ended the group’s five-year so-called “caliphate,” two years after they were defeated in neighboring Iraq. Washington is reportedly considering a full withdrawal from Syria. The SDF has had to scale back anti-ISIS operations to redeploy on the northern frontlines where they have faced three months of attacks by Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militia groups.
