Above photo: Getty Images.
Baghdad and Damascus seek to push US troops out of their lands.
A defeated ISIS has been making a ‘resurgence’ in both countries.
A new report by the inspectors general of the US State Department, Defense Department, and USAID conducted between 1 October and 31 December 2023 has determined that ISIS poses a minimal threat in Iraq and Syria, raising questions about the Pentagon’s insistence on keeping US troops in both nations.
“During the quarter, ISIS continued to operate in a survival posture in both Iraq and Syria. The group remained militarily defeated, incapable of mounting large, complex attacks domestically or externally, even as Coalition forces increased their focus on force protection due to attacks by Iran-aligned militia group,” the quarterly report on the so-called Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) determines, noting the group’s ”capacity to conduct insurgent activities remained severely degraded.”
Furthermore, ISIS currently lacks the “intent and capability to direct attacks against the US homeland,” according to the report. Additionally, crackdowns on the organization’s finances have left it unable to consistently pay fighters, while payments to ISIS leaders are made “sporadically” with funds dug up from caches of money hidden in Iraq and Syria.
The feeble standing of the terror group in Iraq and Syria stands in stark contrast to the statements made by US defense officials, who maintain the Pentagon has “no plans” to withdraw from either country despite mounting political pressure to do so.
“The talks in Iraq serve to reaffirm the Coalition commitment to not only support the Iraqi Security Forces and prevent ISIS resurgence but to further secure the future of Iraq,” Pentagon spokesman Major Pete Nguyen said this week, adding that officials “remain engaged in a coordinated and deliberate process with the Government of Iraq to discuss the evolution of the Defeat-ISIS Global Coalition’s military mission in a manner that preserves gains and helps ensure ISIS can never again resurge.”
“Right now, I’m not aware of any plans [for a withdrawal]. We continue to remain very focused on the defeat ISIS mission,” Pentagon Press Secretary General Patrick Ryder said last month.
About 2,500 US troops remain in Iraq, defying a 2020 parliamentary vote to withdraw permission for the US to operate on Iraqi soil. The vote came in response to the US assassination of Iranian anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani and deputy leader of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in Baghdad.
“The justifications for the existence of the international coalition were to confront ISIS, and today, the organization does not represent a threat to the Iraqi state,” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told reporters in January.
In Syria, the Pentagon claims to have 900 troops, which control about a third of the country and regularly loot oil to subsidize the quasi-independent Kurdish territory established in its northeast.
As a result, the majority of Syrians languish in poverty, enduring only a few hours of electricity per day while the economy remains paralyzed thanks to US sanctions.
Despite assessment by the US government watchdogs, ISIS has been mounting a “resurgence” in Iraq and Syria ever since local resistance factions began attacking US bases in the region in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
According to an investigation by The Cradle, the US army is playing a crucial role in allowing ISIS to regain ground. Iraqi MP Hassan Salem confirmed “there are thousands of ISIS members in the [Houran Valley] receiving training in private camps, under US protection,” noting US forces have “transferred to this area hundreds of ISIS members of different nationalities.”
In the past, the US and allied intelligence agencies used ISIS to attack the Syrian and Iraqi armies as part of their efforts to effect regime change in Damascus starting in 2011 and to depose former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki in 2014.