4 American soldiers killed in Daesh attack in Manbij
BOMBING COULD BOLSTER CASE THAT US JOB IN SYRIA UNFINISHED
Daesh claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on American soldiers and their Kurdish allies in Syria, potentially complicating President Donald Trump’s plans to pull US troops out of the country citing a victory against the terror group.
Initial reports indicate four Americans were killed and three Americans wounded, a Trump administration official said.
A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest attacked international forces patrolling in the northern town of Manbij, according to Daesh’s self-styled Amaq news agency, which is used by the group to claim attacks around the world.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian civil war through activists on the ground, says the blast killed at least 16 people, including two American soldiers.
“The President has been fully briefed and we will continue to monitor the ongoing situation in Syria,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. She referred other questions about the attack to the Department of Defence, which has not confirmed US casualties.
US withdrawal
The attack, if proven to be carried out by Daesh, might be the latest in a series of stumbling blocks in Trump’s efforts to exit Syria. The president’s decision — apparently made during a phone call with his Turkish counterpart last month — has already faced serious pushback from within the US administration, leading to the resignation of Defence Secretary James Mattis. A suicide bombing by the group could bolster the argument that America’s job in Syria remains unfinished.
The confusion over US plans to exit Syria has stoked tensions with Nato ally Turkey; the town of Manbij is at the heart of the dispute over US support for Kurdish YPG fighters. The US and Turkey agreed on a road map last year to have the fighters withdraw from the area. While the US says no timeline was attached to the plan, Ankara wants the Kurds out fast because of their links to a militant Kurdish separatist group Turkey has been battling for decades.
While Trump initially claimed the withdrawal was justified by the defeat of Daesh, he later made clear that remnants of the group remained and should be eradicated by other countries’ forces as the US left. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey could take on that role, but has also said that an operation could target US-backed Kurdish forces, prompting warnings from US officials and from Trump.
Daesh has lost almost all of the land it once held under its self-proclaimed caliphate. The group swept through Iraq and Syria in 2014, conquering large chunks of territory before its major strongholds fell at the end of 2017.