Kurds rejoin US fight against IS despite Trump’s exit plan
The West’s Kurdish allies have resumed co-operation with US forces against Islamic State in northern Syria as American officials claimed nothing had changed in policy terms despite President Donald Trump’s orders to pull out of the country.
Turkey also revealed that it had been holding a wife and daughter of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the IS leader killed in a US raid two weeks ago, for more than a year but had kept their arrest secret. Baghdadi’s sister was captured by Turkey last week.
The US president said last month that he was pulling all US troops out of Syria except for a small residual force to secure oilfields in the east of the country. But a full-scale withdrawal has not yet happened.
Hundreds of US troops remain inside Syria, including right up against the Turkish border, despite Trump’s determination to ‘‘let someone else fight over this longbloodstained sand’’.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, a senior US official appeared to acknowledge that Trump’s flurry of announcements had little impact on US policy.
When asked if policy had changed since Trump ordered the withdrawal, he replied simply: ‘‘No.
‘‘Our goals have not changed and our means are basically the same. So the goals and means are the same. The conditions have changed.’’ Asked if the president was aware there was no policy change, he replied: ‘‘You can ask the president.’’
Underscoring the continuity of US policy, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it was resuming co-operation with American troops to carry out operations against the remnants of IS for the first time since early October.
‘‘As a result of a series of meetings with coalition leaders, the SDF is resuming its joint programme of work with the coalition to combat Isis and securing the infrastructure of north-east Syria,’’ said Mazloum Kobane Abdi, the head of the SDF. This is the second time Trump’s ambition of withdrawing from Syria has been thwarted. He announced in December
2018 he was bringing US troops home, declaring ‘‘we have won against Isis’’.
The decision triggered the resignation of Jim Mattis, his defence secretary, but was ultimately slowed down to the point that it was never implemented.
Last month’s announcement appears to have met a similar fate. US national security officials and senior Republicans reportedly played on Trump’s years-long fascination with Middle East oil to convince him to leave some American forces in Syria to ‘‘secure the oil’’.
Up to 800 US soldiers are expected to stay inside Syria as part of the plan and, as the senior US official indicated, they appear to be largely continuing the mission as they were before Trump’s withdrawal order.
There were around 1000 US soldiers in the country before the order was given.
Turkish officials also said yesterday that Baghdadi’s wife and daughter had been captured in southern Turkey in June 2018.
It was not clear why Turkey waited so long to make news of the arrests public or if it had informed Western intelligence agencies of their capture.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, said he didn’t want to ‘‘make a fuss’’ about the arrests and criticised the US for mounting a ‘‘communications campaign’’ after Baghdadi’s death.