In comments that seemed to have been designed to justify a continued US
military presence in Syria, US Special Envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition
James Jeffrey claimed ISIS in Syria are only defeated where US ground troops are, and that ISIS is still active in parts of Syria, particularly south of the Euphrates.
This narrative would make sense on a very superficial level, if true,
because US forces in Deir Ezzor Province are in the Kurdish-held
territory, further north, and the Syrian military and its allies took
areas south, near the river itself.
The problems, however, are that there haven’t been reports of ISIS being
active in this area of Syria south of the Euphrates. Even if there
were, the US has one of its largest bases in Syria in al-Tanf, which is
in this area, and the US has carved out much of that area as a no-go
zone for the Syrian military.
ISIS presence in Syria is at this point virtually non-existent, and to
the extent there are any at all, they are scattered about in the desert
in Deir Ezzor Province. This spans both US-held territory and some areas
where the Syrian military is, but so long as ISIS remains in the
desert, no one appears to have any interest in coming after them.
US Officials Falsely Claims ISIS Only Defeated Where US Troops Are Present
Claims ISIS is active south of the Euphrates River
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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