US lawmakers jolted by Syria briefing as Pentagon warns of IS resurgence

WASHINGTON: The US military’s hands-off approach on the ground in Syria is ceding influence to Russia and Iran, a top lawmaker warned, as the Pentagon said it has seen the Islamic State “resurge” in parts of the country.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker said Moscow and Teheran have “significant influence” in the war-ravaged Middle Eastern nation due to their years-long commitment, while President Donald Trump signals the US could be headed for the exits there.

When asked whether he wanted a greater US troop presence to shape events in Syria, Corker was sombre.

“I think the administration’s plans are to complete the efforts against ISIS and to not be involved,” he said, using another acronym for the militant group.

A frustrated Corker spoke after exiting a classified briefing by Secretary of Defence James Mattis and top generals, who explained the Pentagon’s strategy to lawmakers following last weekend’s missile strikes on Syria.

“Syria is Russia and Iran’s now. They will be determining the future,” he said.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham expressed alarm about a lack of US engagement in the country where insurgents have waged a brutal civil war against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

“Everything in that briefing made me more worried, not less,” he said.

“There is no military strategy on the table to deal with the malign influence of Iran and Russia,” Graham said.

After the pinpoint airstrikes that Trump telegraphed on social media, “I think Assad ... believes we’re all tweet, no action,” he added.

Democrats joined in the criticism, with Senator Chris Coons warning that Trump’s administration has “failed to deliver on a coherent plan” in Syria.

“If we completely withdraw, our leverage in any diplomatic resolution or reconstruction, or any hope for a post-Assad Syria, goes away.”

Meanwhile, Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq, said Assad’s regime and Russia have not always been able to hold the terrain recaptured from IS.

“As we look at ISIS in areas where we are not operating, where we are not supporting our partners on the ground, there has been ISIS elements who have been able to come back and take territory (including in) some of the neighbourhoods in southern Damascus,” Dillon said.