US Commander: ISIS Rebuilding in Western Syria

Says current conditions are 'as bad or worse' than rise of ISIS

With playing up the “threat” of ISIS remaining a top priority, commander Frank McKenzie warned on Wednesday that ISIS remnants are rebuilding in Western Syria with little the US can do to move against them.

McKenzie says that Western Syria is “as bad or worse” than it was when ISIS formed there in the first place, though historically ISIS came out of Iraq into Syria, and didn’t just form in a bad part of war-torn Syria.

The US has removed troops from Syria, and is concentrating just on controlling an oilfield therein. The rest of the area, almost all of which was ISIS Caliphate in recent years, is controlled by either the Syrian government or Turkish forces.

This narrative lets McKenzie fault Syria for not doing more, and keeps the story out there that the US troops are doing something ISIS related, a main military talking point for staying.

Author: Jason Ditz

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.