North-eastern Syria – North-Press Agency
Colonel Myles Caggins, the official spokesman for the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) in an interview with North-Press, said that the Coalition has launched an initiative to secure more job opportunities for the local population by providing sales services and other facilities to secure basic sources for living.
Col. Caggins said that this initiative is the first of its kind to help the economy, because it is like combating ISIS, "when there is a strong economy, a strong local government, a unified society, and job opportunities available for young men and women," it is unlikely to turn into terrorism, so the economic situation is linked to security in the region. And the Global Coalition "is trying to come up with new ways to aid our operations with the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
The Global Coalition is trying to make room for local businesses to compete for service contracts that support the Global Coalition forces in this base. "We believe it is important to do anything as possible to protect the civilians here against ISIS threat."
In response to the question regarding the repositioning of the U.S. troops in October last year in northeastern Syria, the U.S. Col. said, "There was tension in the border region and we moved the troops away from the border and repositioned to Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor provinces, where we continued our partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces There, for one purpose that's to defeat ISIS."
He revealed that the decision of repositioning the U.S.-led Global Coalition forces was "part of the bilateral discussions between the United States and Turkey.”
Col. Caggins stressed on the Coalition’s military commitment to their partnership with the SDF, "There's a great amount of admiration that the Coalition troops have for the Syrian Democratic Forces," the Coalition used to have bases in the northern and western cities such as Manbij, Tabqah, Raqqa, Kobani, and Serrin Base, "and we closed those locations and moved our troops to the eastern part of the country.” But we remained partnered with the Syrian Democratic Forces, and this partnership is quite visible in the provinces of Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, but our mission as I said earlier is to defeat ISIS.”
Regarding the partnership mechanism with the SDF, Col. Caggins said: "Sometimes the Coalition forces are helping the SDF with intelligence and other things that are not visible, like trucks going down the roads with American flags behind them. And this relationship continues to exist even though we moved away.”
"Right now, I am talking to you on an SDF base, the security on this base provided by the SDF with a small cluster of Coalition troops, this is just one sign of the partnership", he said.
Regarding the withdrawal issue during the last period, Col. Myles Caggins said: "Everybody imagined that when the Coalition troops left those cities, then everything would crumble, ISIS would come back, other regions would be swept and take control, but because of the organization for the SDF that began as a result of the threat of ISIS five years ago, the continuity, the cohesion, the unity has continued even with pressure from different actors and different groups including ISIS terrorists, the Coalition remained partnered in this way.”
But he also said that: "I am not here to make any guarantees of what the Global Coalition will do. Fortunately, the Coalition was able to find a strong partnership in the SDF, and I can only tell that, we will be here to continue to defeat ISIS, to protect the critical infrastructure that ISIS used to raise so much money to finance its terrorist activities, and we will do this as long as our leaders remained committed to this.”
In response to a question about the number of the Coalition troops in the region, the U.S. Colonel said: "The Coalition has around 600 troops in Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, not many troops, I think the Syrian Democratic Forces probably have 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 troops in the region ranging from Manbij to Derik and down south to al-Baghouz area.”
The Colonel disclosed the existence of "many complexities" in this region, especially with the Russian presence, which has recently led to a competition between them and the Coalition forces regarding the issue of influence areas and the roadmap of conducting patrols, saying: "Every day we talk to the Russians on the phone, we exchange messages with them, to let them know where we are going in the area on the ground, and the Russians let us know where they are going in the area on the ground. Sometimes, there is unplanned encounters on the road and in every instance, I want to assure you that, the Coalition goal is to de-escalate, to have these encounters end peacefully.”
"Where both sides go in the separate ways, and that has been the case, there have been so many times you see, the red, white, blue stars and stripes of America (the U.S. flag) passing through vehicles of the Russians, and there is no issue, that is because there have been professional resolution of our convoys and aerial missions through de-confliction process,” he added.
He also revealed the non-existence of the Coalition troops in Manbij, Tabqah and Raqqa cities: "We have moved these cities, I know that the SDF are on those spaces, and I know that the SDF are continuing to bust ISIS sleeper cells in Manbij, Tabqah and Raqqa."
Concerning the problem of the existence of about 10,000 ISIS members in the detention centers of the SDF, Col. Caggins said: "We do not have Coalition troops at the camps, we have provided some advice to the SDF on how to properly conduct the detention operations, but it is the SDF mission.”
While he admitted that there hasn't been any solution to this problem until now, saying: "There is not any quick solution, but there is definitely a need to have a solution to resolve the situation in the camps.”
“I’m more interested on focusing on the facts, the fact is that the Unites States in the Coalition remains committed to partnering with the SDF in Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor,” he said.
The Global Coalition spokesperson, Col. Myles Cagginz added: "The fact is that the other nations in this region who have a track record of bombing tens of thousands of civilians deliberately, haphazardly, for what reasons, I don't know. So, the Coalition remains the partner with the SFD.”