The
United States has been funding and supporting the group for months,
due to “strategic interests” in the region, a spokesperson
revealed.
U.S.-backed
Kurdish forces in Syria — who are among Washington's most important
and powerful regional allies — told Reuters Thursday that the U.S.
military will remain in northern Syria “for decades to come.”
A
spokesman from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of
militias headed by the Kurdish YPG, Talal Silo, told Reuters that the
the United States has a "strategic interest" in the area,
and that U.S. forces will be staying there long after the Islamic
state group might be defeated.
"They
have a strategy policy for decades to come. There will be military,
economic and political agreements in the long term between the
leadership of the northern areas (of Syria) ... and the U.S.
administration," Silo said.
The
U.S. military has funded the SDF extensively, also supporting them
with air strikes, artillery, and special forces on the ground. It was
in March when the then-new U.S. administration of President Donald
Trump began distributing arms to the YPG, ahead of their assault in
Raqqa.
When
probed about their long-term strategy, Col. Ryan Dillon, another
spokesman for the coalition, deferred Reuters to the U.S. Pentagon,
adding that there is “still a lot of fighting to do, even after
ISIS has been defeated in Raqqa".
Eric
Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman, in turn, stated, “The Department of
Defense does not discuss timelines for future operations. However we
remain committed to the destruction of ISIS and preventing its
return.”
The
head of the YPG revealed last month that the United States has
established seven military bases in areas of northern Syria that are
controlled by the YPG or SDF, including a major air base near Kobani,
which borders Turkey.
“In
the beginning, American support was secret,” Alan Hassan, a
Kurd in northeastern Syria's Qamishli, told The New York Times of the
group’s affiliations back in May. “Now it is public. The
relationship has changed from undeclared to declared.”
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