U.S. would welcome Syria gov’t in ISIS fight

ROBERT BURNS

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military coalition fighting Islamic State would welcome a concerted effort by the Syrian government or its Iranian-backed partner forces to defeat Islamic State in its remaining strongholds in eastern Syria, a U.S. spokesman said Friday.

Army Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the coalition, told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. goal is to defeat Islamic State wherever it exists. If others, including the Syrian government and its Iranian and Russian allies, want to fight the extremists as well, then “we absolutely have no problem with that,” he said, speaking from Baghdad, Iraq.

“If it looks like they are making a concerted effort to move into ISIS-held areas, and if they show that they can do that, that is not a bad sign,” Dillon said, referring to forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad. “We are here to fight ISIS as a coalition, but if others want to fight ISIS and defeat them, then we absolutely have no problem with that.”

Washington severed diplomatic relations with Syria during the Obama administration, which insisted that Assad must give up power. More recently, Assad has strengthened his position, regaining key territory from weakened opposition forces.

The battlespace in Syria is getting more crowded and complex as Islamic State-held territory shrinks, raising questions about how the various parties will interact or avoid one another.

Syrian government troops, for example, have reached the Iraqi border in an area where Islamic State leaders have been gathering. The area is far from the main battle lines of Syria’s civil war.

The U.S. so far has shunned any co-operation with Assad and has partnered instead with local Arab and Kurdish forces in fighting Islamic State. Those local forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, are currently fighting to recapture the extremists’ selfdeclared capital, Raqqa.

Last weekend, for the first time, the U.S. shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had dropped bombs near the SDF. Two other times this month the U.S. has shot down Iranian-made drones in southern Syria that were deemed to pose a threat to U.S. and partner forces.