The latest phase of the military campaign against the Islamic State in Syria will likely pit U.S.-backed forces against the Syrian regime in a bid to see who controls what territory after the terrorist group is gone.
The U.S. insists its only mission in Syria is to destroy ISIS but many of its partner forces on the ground have different agendas. The Syrian regime is now mounting an aggressive campaign against ISIS in one of its last strongholds in order to get to the territory before the U.S. and its allies. The majority of U.S.-backed forces are of Kurdish origin who have long sought an independent region within Syria, something the Assad regime has long rejected.
U.S. commanders expect to move the military campaign against the terrorist group to Deir al-Zour in the coming months, located in the middle Euphrates River valley. The Syrian regime, however, breached the city before the U.S. could arrive and may cut off any approach route for the U.S. coalition.
“Once the regime takes Deir Ezzour, it’s game over for the U.S.-led coalition. They will have to stop,” a Syrian rebel leader told The Wall Street Journal. “After Deir Ezzour, the regime will be able to go to al-Bukamal, and once al-Bukamal is taken, the Iranians will have achieved an uninterrupted land route from Tehran to Baghdad to Damascus to Hezbollah in Beirut.”
The convergence of Syrian, Iranian, Russian, and U.S. backed forces in the same area could ignite tensions. The U.S. has already had several encounters with unmanned Iranian drones, shot down a Syrian regime aircraft in late June that repeatedly bombed U.S. backed anti-ISIS forces, and repeatedly bombed pro-regime forces that did not heed warnings.
Outgoing Operation Inherent Resolve commander, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, sought to downplay any fears of potential conflict Thursday, telling Pentagon reporters, “we have lines that are agreed to that will cover much of the Middle Euphrates River Valley now; not all of it yet, but we’ll get to that when the time comes.” He added, “everyone that’s converging down there is trying to defeat ISIS as a first priority and we’ll use that to our advantage to work through it.”
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