Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who also serves as an envoy to Turkey, wrote on X on Tuesday that the participation of the new Syrian government — led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot of al-Qaeda — in a US-led anti-ISIS coalition meeting marks a “new chapter” in the region.
“Regional solutions, shared responsibility,” Barrack wrote on X after a coalition meeting in Saudi Arabia that was attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al- Shibani, who, according to Arab media, was a founding member of the al-Nusra Front, Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate that became HTS. “Syria’s participation in the D-ISIS Coalition meeting in Riyadh marks a new chapter in collective security.”
The meeting in Riyadh came after clashes between the HTS-led government and the Kurdish-led SDF, which was previously the US’s main partner in Syria. But Barrack declared in a post on X on January 20 that the SDF’s role against ISIS has “largely expired” now that the US is allied with the Syrian government.
“[T]he original purpose of the SDF as the primary anti-ISIS force on the ground has largely expired, as Damascus is now both willing and positioned to take over security responsibilities, including control of ISIS detention facilities and camps,” Barrack said.
While the US ambassador is framing the Syrian government as an effective ally against ISIS, just two days after Barrack’s post, US officials acknowledged to The Wall Street Journal that the new Syrian military is full of ISIS and al-Qaeda-aligned fighters. “The force is riddled with jihadist sympathizers, including soldiers with ties to al-Qaeda and ISIS and others who have been involved in alleged war crimes against the Kurds and Druze,” the Journal report said.
The Journal also mentioned the December 13 attack in Palmyra, central Syria, that was carried out by a member of Syria’s security forces and killed two Iowa National Guard soldiers and an American civilian interpreter. “The challenge was laid bare in December, when two U.S. soldiers and an American civilian interpreter were killed during an attack near the city of Palmyra. The attacker was a member of the Syrian security forces who was set to be fired for holding extremist views,” the report said.
President Trump blamed the Palmyra attack on ISIS, and the US military launched a new operation, dubbed “Operation Hawkeye Strike,” that it says is targeting ISIS cells. US troops involved in ground raids are operating alongside Syrian government forces, putting them at risk of more insider attacks.
