Islamic State resurgence feared after U.S. pullout

WASHINGTON — U.S. defence officials are increasingly fearful that Islamic State militants are simply biding their time until the Americans leave the battlefield in Syria as planned.

IS militants have lost territory since U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement in December that he was pulling U.S. forces out, but military officials warn the fighters could regroup within six months to a year after the Americans leave.

A Defence Department watchdog report released Monday warned of just such a possibility.

The Islamic State group “remains a potent force of battlehardened and well-disciplined fighters that ‘could likely resurge in Syria’ absent continued counterterrorism pressure,” the report from the inspector general said.

The top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Gen. Joseph Votel, told a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday that of the 88,000 square kilometres of territory that IS once held, it now controls less than 52 square km. That figure includes a large swath of desert around Syria villages IS controls.

“It is important to understand that even though this territory has been reclaimed, the fight against ISIS and violent extremists is not over and our mission has not changed,” Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“The coalition’s hard-won battlefield gains can only be secured by maintaining a vigilant offensive against the now largely dispersed and disaggregated ISIS that retains leaders, fighters, facilitators, resources and the profane ideology that fuels their efforts.”

Votel said there are now between 1,000 and 1,500 IS fighters in the small area they still control in the southern part of the Euphrates River Valley near the Iraqi border. The remainder, he said, have “dispersed” and “gone to ground,” suggesting they retain the potential to return.