Four US troops killed as IS shows it is still deadly threat
Four American servicemen were killed in an Islamnic State suicide bombing in northern Syria yesterday, 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 US coalition forces were on patrol, killing 16 people, including the American troops, a number of local officials and several civilians. Three more US servicemen were injured.
The attack was claimed by Islamic State through Amaq, its official news channel. It is the deadliest single incident for the US 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 2000 troops in the country, a decision which appears to have emboldened the jihadists.
On January 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, yesterday 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 IS nearly over, but fierce fighting has continued in Deir Ezzor and counter-attacks are setting back the US and its allies. The latest attack will put Trump in a predicament: on the one hand he has claimed the US 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 Washingtonbased 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 Isis is far from over.’’
Manbij, which is close to the Turkish border, is at the centre of a power struggle between the US and its Kurdish partners and Turkey, as well as the Syrian government and its Russian backers.
Russia, Turkey and the US were yesterday at odds over the future of Manbij and wider northern Syria. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, and Trump had come to an agreement earlier this week over a ‘‘safe zone’’ to prevent a Turkish assault on Syria’s Kurds, however they could not agree on who should police it.
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units, a partner force of the US that is considered a terrorist group by Ankara, rejected a proposal for the 32km zone to be patrolled by Turkish troops, saying it would only accept United Nations forces.
Turkey, according to local reports, was readying some 80,000 troops at its southern border.
The US – attempting to keep both allies happy – has not outlined how the ‘‘safe zone’’ would work in practice.
Russia, meanwhile, said the entire area should instead be handed back to the Syrian government.
‘‘We are convinced that the best and only solution is the transfer of these territories under the control of the Syrian government, and of Syrian security forces and administrative structures,’’ Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said yesterday. – Telegraph Group