12 September 2019

US-Turkish ‘safe zone' could fuel Daesh resurgence

by Ashley Roque

Washington and Ankara’s bid to establish a ‘safe zone’ along the Syria’s northeastern border could further strain the limited number of US troops inside the country and provide Daesh (the Islamic State, or ISIS) with a space to grow, warned the former special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS Brett McGurk.

Over the recent weeks, the United States and Turkey have moved forward with a ‘safe zone’, also called a security mechanism, in a bid to ease tensions between Ankara and US-backed Kurdish forces. So far, the two countries have stood up a joint operations centre in Ankara and conducted aerial surveillance flights and a joint ground patrol inside Syria. The US is, presumably, pulling from the 1,000 US troops that remain inside Syria tasked with defeating Daesh, countering Iran’s influence, and bringing about political change.

A US military convoy participates in joint patrol with Turkish troops in the Syrian village of al-Hashisha on the outskirts of Tal Abyad town along the border with Turkish troops on 8 September. The US and Turkey have begun joint patrols in northeastern Syria aimed at easing tensions between Ankara and US-backed Kurdish forces. (Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images)

“Those are big objectives … and you’ve got to really resource a campaign like that, and it’s not resourced,” McGurk told an audience during a 10 September event at the Brookings Institution. In addition to those three objectives, he noted that US troops are also working to combat a growing jihadist movement inside Syria’s al-Hol displacement camp.

Now safe zone activities are complicating the US operations, pulling the limited number of troops left in the country away from “vital missions” and could create space for Daesh to “metastasis”, McGurk said.

Washington and Ankara’s bid to establish a ‘safe zone’ along the Syria’s northeastern border could f...

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