US looks to prevent ISIS resurgence in Syria amid rebel conflict

RYAN ROBERTSON: The Assad regime ruled Syria with brutality for decades. Less than a week after Syrians toppled the regime the U.S. started going to work to make sure ISIS doesn’t fill the void.

While rebels from HTS and the Free Syrian Army are beginning to form a government in the capital Damascus, dozens of other groups are trying to win control in different parts of the country. In that chaos, the U.S. launched dozens of airstrikes on ISIS targets.

The groups competing for power in Syria have a complicated mix of allies. The U.S., for example, relies on the SDF, a group made up mostly of fighters who are ethnically Kurdish. Syria’s neighbor Turkey has its own domestic issues with Kurds looking for independence and considers the SDF a terrorist organization.

Both the U.S. and Turkey wanted the old Syrian regime to fall, but Turkey backs different groups, which are launching major attacks on the SDF.

In the face of the attacks, a top SDF commander told CNN the group needed to move some of the ISIS detainees held in more than 20 prisons and camps across Syria. And they’ve had to stop most of their anti-ISIS activities to fight the Turkish-backed rebels.

ISIS, meanwhile, came out of a years-long hiding in Syria. The SDF’s top commander says that they’ve seen more ISIS activity in areas under SDF control.

U.S. officials are working to connect with their counterparts in Turkey in an effort to make sure the fighting between groups the two countries back doesn’t risk letting ISIS rebuild in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Turkey for meetings with the country’s government about the uncertainty in Syria.

The U.S. currently has about 900 troops stationed in Syria to help anti-ISIS groups keep the terrorist organization from trying to establish another caliphate.

President-elect Trump may change that, however. He said last week the U.S. “should have nothing to do with” the situation in Syria.

For Straight Arrow News, I’m Ryan Robertson.

And for all the latest updates on this and other top stories, download the Straight Arrow News app.