Blast kills 4 Americans in Syria
ISIS attack may complicate U.S. troop withdrawal
BEIRUT — A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State killed two U.S. soldiers, a Pentagon civilian employee and a U.S. contractor Wednesday in northern Syria, less than a month after President Donald Trump declared he was pulling U.S. forces out of the country and that the extremist group had been defeated.
The attack, which also wounded three U.S. service members along with other people in the strategic northeastern town of Manbij, complicates what had already become a messy withdrawal plan, with Trump’s senior advisers disagreeing with the decision and then offering an evolving timetable for the removal of 2,000 U.S. troops.
It also underscores Pentagon assertions that the Islamic State, also called ISIS, is still a threat capable of deadly attacks.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, which local groups said killed 16 people in the U.S.-patrolled town of Manbij.
“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” Trump tweeted in December in announcing his intention to bring back U.S. troops “NOW.”
Vice President Mike Pence repeated the claim Wednesday, saying the Islamic State “caliphate has crumbled” and the militant network “has been defeated.”
His comments in a speech at the State Department came shortly after the U.S. military announced that American soldiers were among those killed in Man-
bij.
News of the combat deaths prompted a far different response from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Wednesday that the troop withdrawal announced by Trump has emboldened the militant group.
“My concern by the statements made by President Trump is that you have set in motion enthusiasm by the enemy we’re fighting,” Graham said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “So I would hope the president would look long and hard of where he’s headed in Syria.”
Graham compared Syria to Iraq, and said the United States needs to maintain its commitment to forces fighting the Islamic State and the ideology that cannot be as easily wiped out.
“Every American wants our troops to come home, but I now think all of us want to make sure that when they do come home, we’re safe,” he said. “I know people are frustrated. But we’re never going to be safe here unless we’re willing to help people over there who will stand against this radical ideology.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders praised the “brave American heroes” who died in the attack. “Our service members and their families have all sacrificed so much for our country,” she said in a statement.
Video released by local activists and news agencies showed a restaurant that suffered extensive damage and a street covered with debris and blood. Several cars were also damaged.
A security camera showed a busy street, and then a ball of fire engulfing people and others running for cover as the blast went off.
Trump’s shifting timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Syria, a country he described as “sand and death,” has left allies and other players in the region confused and jockeying for influence over a withdrawal strategy that appeared to be a work in progress.
Critics have said a pullout was premature, that ISIS was still not defeated and a withdrawal could lead to a power vacuum that would fuel even more violence.
It also led to the resignation of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
Since then, U.S. officials and Trump himself have suggested the withdrawal would be slower than initially believed.
White House national security adviser John Bolton said two conditions would have to be met, including the protection of America’s local Kurdish allies in northern Syria, and the total defeat of ISIS.
Last week, the U.S. military began pulling out equipment from the northeast into neighboring Iraq. No troops are known to have withdrawn.
Manbij is strategic: It is the main town on the westernmost edge of Syrian territory held by the U.S.backed Syrian Kurds, running along the border with Turkey.
Mixed Kurdish-Arab Syrian forces liberated Manbij from the rule of the Islamic State group in 2016 with help from the U.S.-led coalition.
But Kurdish control of the town infuriated Turkey, which views the main U.S. Kurdish ally, the YPG militia, as “terrorists” linked to Kurdish insurgents on its own soil.
The town has been at the center of tensions in northern Syria, with the militaries of two NATO members, the U.S. and Turkey, on opposing sides.
The two sides began joint patrols around Manbij in November as part of an agreement for easing tensions between the two allies.
The crowded terrain has become more combustible as Turkey threatens to attack Kurdish-run towns further east. The presence of the Americans is a main obstacle preventing them from doing so.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 16 people were killed Wednesday. It added that at least five U.S.-backed Syrian fighters were also among the dead.
Attacks targeting members of the U.S.-led coalition in Syria have been rare.
In March last year, a roadside bomb killed two coalition personnel, an American and a Briton, and wounded five in Manbij.
The Washington Post contributed.