ISIL REMAINS A THREAT AS 4 U.S. TROOPS KILLED IN SYRIA.

ISIL shows it is still deadly threat in country

Four American servicemen were killed in an ISIL suicide bombing in northern Syria Wednesday, putting into question Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops before the Islamist group has been defeated.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest outside a restaurant in the flashpoint city of Manbij, where U.S. coalition forces were on patrol, killing 16 people, including the American troops, a number of local officials and several civilians. Three more U.S. servicemen were injured.

The attack was claimed by ISIL through Amaq, its official news channel. It is the deadliest single incident for the U.S. since it intervened in Syria in 2015, and the second such attack on coalition troops since Trump declared in mid-december that he would be recalling all 2,000 troops in the country, a decision which appears to have emboldened the jihadists.

On Jan. 5, they fired a heat-seeking missile into a group of coalition troops on patrol further south in Deir Ezzor, injuring as many as five British Special Forces personnel.

The White House said the president had been briefed on the situation in Manbij, but he did not offer a comment. Mike Pence, the vice-president, Wednesday reiterated Trump’s plans for a drawdown, despite the attack.

“We’ll stay in the region and we’ll stay in the fight to ensure that ISIS does not rear its ugly head again,” he told a gathering in Washington.

Trump had declared the fight against ISIL nearly over, but fierce fighting has continued in Deir Ezzor and counter-attacks are setting back the U.S. and its allies. The latest attack will put Trump in a predicament: on the one hand he has claimed the U.S. will not leave until its mission to defeat ISIL is complete, but he also wants to make good on a campaign promise to bring troops home as soon as possible.

“(The attack) lends credence to the widespread concern that arose following President Trump’s order to withdraw from Syria, that doing so was extremely premature,” said Charles Lister, director of countering terrorism and extremism at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

“President Trump’s order was reckless and driven far more by domestic political concerns than it was by facts on the ground.

“Today’s attack shows to all concerned not only how dangerous that decision was, but that the reality on the ground is not at all what the president told his people and the battle against ISIL is far from over.”