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Report Slams US Troop Pullout from Syria

Jeff Seldin

   U.S. plans to keep just a residual force in Syria to ensure the
   enduring defeat of the Islamic State may be on the verge of backfiring,
   with some military officials warning the strategy is giving the terror
   group new life.

   The doubts, raised in a Defense Department Inspector General report
   released Tuesday, come as Washington has struggled to secure additional
   on-the-ground help in Syria from allies and amid renewed warnings that
   while IS may have lost control of its self-declared caliphate, the
   group's fighters are far from defeated.

   Some of the strongest criticism for what the report described as
   Washington's completed "partial withdrawal" from Syria is from
   officials with Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve
   (CJTF-OIR), the headquarters responsible for overseeing U.S. and
   coalition efforts against IS.

   "According to CJTF-OIR, the reduction of U.S. forces has decreased the
   support available for Syrian partner forces at a time when their forces
   need more training and equipping to respond to the ISIS resurgence,"
   Principal Deputy Inspector General Glenn Fine wrote, using another
   acronym for Islamic State.

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