US-led coalition scrambles to realign Islamic State mission following Syria exit
The global coalition is turning its attention to Iraq to avoid a resurgence of the Islamic State.
The US-backed coalition to defeat the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) is scrambling to rejigger its mission following President Donald Trump’s decision to pull American troops out of Syria.
In a message to coalition member nations sent on Dec. 19, just as Trump announced the phased withdrawal of 2,000 US service members from Syria over the next 30 days, the coalition said it “must continue its preparations for the next phase of its campaign” despite the American decision.
“We remain fully committed to assisting the government of Iraq to continue to fight the remaining elements of ISIS in Iraq and those that threaten Iraq from Syria,” the coalition said in a message obtained by Al-Monitor. “The coalition should increase its focus on disrupting ISIS’s global network through increased information sharing and complementary efforts on counter-finance, counter-messaging and security-law enforcement.”
The 73-nation alliance, which had been represented on the US side by presidential envoy Brett McGurk before he resigned over the Syria pullout on Dec. 20, plans to meet at a Feb. 6 ministerial to discuss the next steps in uprooting IS. But it remains unclear what role the United States will have in the campaign going forward, even as Trump has suggested in subsequent tweets that the Syria withdrawal will occur more slowly than initially indicated.
