U.S. troops resume counterterrorism missions against ISIS in Syria

Syrian children look at U.S. troops in their vehicle.

(Image credit: Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)

published 26 November 2019

U.S. troops are once again carrying out large-scale operations against the Islamic State in northern Syria, military officials said.

On Friday, American soldiers and Syrian Kurdish forces joined together for a large-scale mission in Deir al-Zour province. They raided several ISIS compounds, killing and injuring "multiple" fighters and capturing about a dozen more. The ISIS fighters that remain in Syria "still have the power to injure, still have the power to cause violence," Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of the Central Command, said on Saturday.

In October, close to 1,000 U.S. troops were ordered out of Syria by President Trump, which paved the way for Turkey to cross the border and launch an attack against the Kurds. Intelligence analysts warned that ISIS was beginning to make a comeback in remote desert areas of Syria, The New York Times reports, and McKenzie said 500 troops will remain in the northern part of the country. He did not say how long they will stay.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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