...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(ISIS) on Friday reiterated the military alliance’s support for Peshmerga forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in their continuing fight against the remnants of the terrorist group.
Major Rachael Jeffcoat, spokesperson for the Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), told Rudaw on Friday that they will continue to advise and assist both Kurdish forces.
"We do support the Peshmerga through the Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund. This is a temporary US-funded program that supports our coalition partners ... We have divested $351 million to Peshmerga and this covers the costs for, say, equipment such as Humvees or engineering equipment and ammunition. And all of this is used in our mission to defeat ISIS," Major Jeffcoat told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan.
She added that the US-led coalition is also helping Peshmerga to make reforms in the force.
At least 12,000 SDF fighters as well as 2,000 Peshmerga forces have been killed in the battle against ISIS since 2014.
ISIS has recently increased operations against Iraqi forces in the areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, killing several Iraqi soldiers.
Tensions between
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...and the SDF have escalated recently after Ankara launched an aerial military operation against the force in northeast Syria (Rojava). Turkey has also threatened to conduct a ground operation against the SDF in the near future - a move internationally opposed.
The US army keeps about nearly 1,000 troops in Rojava, according to the latest data shared by Kurdish authorities with Rudaw English.
"The SDF is a credible force that we work with that we partner with. And they are our only combat credible force in northeast Syria and we will maintain to advise, assist, [and] enable that Syrian Democratic Forces," the spokesperson told Rudaw.