U.S. commander 'concerned' over ISIS regrouping in western Syria

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, issued a stark warning on Wednesday about the Islamic State in Syria.

McKenzie, participating in a virtual U.S. Institute of Peace forum, said that in parts of western Syria, "conditions are as bad or worse" than they were prior to the terrorist group's rise in 2014, and "we should all be concerned about that." This region is controlled by the Syrian government, and insurgents there have a degree of freedom to move around. There is barely a U.S. presence in western Syria, McKenzie said, and the United States does not believe the regime will do anything to try to push back against the militants.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, it's been difficult to transfer people out of Syrian refugee camps. One camp, al-Hol in northeastern Syria, has as many as 70,000 inhabitants, and it can be easy to radicalize people in these conditions, McKenzie said. "As young people grow up, we're going to see them again unless we can turn them in a way to make them productive members of society," he added. "We can either deal with this problem now or deal with it exponentially worse a few years down the road."

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