by Eric Schmitt and Ben Hubbard
The attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State, occurred at a restaurant in Manbij, northern Syria, frequented by American troops. Warning: video includes scenes of graphic violence.Published OnJan. 16, 2019CreditCreditANHA, via Associated Press
WASHINGTON — American troops were among 15 people killed on Wednesday in a suicide bombing in northern Syria that was claimed by the Islamic State, just weeks after President Trump ordered the withdrawal of United States forces and declared that the extremist group had been defeated.
The attack targeted a restaurant in the northern city of Manbij where American soldiers would sometimes stop to eat during their patrols of the area, residents said. After the blast, a number of Americans were evacuated by helicopter, they said. It was not immediately clear how many had been in the area at the time of the blast.
A statement by the Baghdad-based American headquarters for the fight against the Islamic State said the attack happened while the troops were on a patrol.
“U.S. service members were killed during an explosion while conducting a routine patrol in Syria today,” said the statement, which was posted on Twitter. “We are still gathering information and will share additional details at a later time.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 15 and said one American soldier was among the dead.
Additionally, a Defense Department official said there were multiple Americans killed or wounded but did not give specific numbers. Another United States official said as many as three American troops and an American civilian were killed, and three others wounded — one critically. Both of those officials spoke on condition of anonymity.Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House spokeswoman, said Mr. Trump had been briefed on the attack “and we will continue to monitor the ongoing situation in Syria.” Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at a gathering of American ambassadors at the State Department headquarters on Wednesday, maintained that plans to pull troops out of Syria remain on track.
Mr.
Pence also said, however, that the United States would “stay in the
fight to ensure that ISIS does not rear its ugly head again.”
The bombing puts Mr. Trump in the position of being squeezed between his decision to withdraw American troops and his promise in a tweet on Sunday to hit the Islamic State again, and “hard,” if the group lashed out.
The
United States has about 2,000 soldiers in Syria who were sent to work
with local militias in 2015 to fight the Islamic State. Wednesday’s
attack prompted calls from Republicans and Democrats in Congress for Mr.
Trump to reconsider his decision to withdraw troops from Syria.
Senator
Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a prominent Trump ally
who has criticized the Syria withdrawal plan, suggested the president’s
stance emboldened Islamic State fighters and encouraged such attacks.
Mr.
Trump’s statements “set in motion enthusiasm by the enemy we’re
fighting” and “make people we’re trying to help wonder about us, and as
they get bolder, the people we’re trying to help are going to get more
uncertain,” Mr. Graham said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “I
saw this in Iraq. And I’m now seeing it in Syria.”
Manbij,
a city in northern Syria, has been ruled by nearly all sides that are
fighting in the country’s civil war that broke out in 2011. An
American-backed militia of Kurdish and Arab fighters ousted the Islamic
State from the city in mid-2016.
Since
then, Manbij largely has been governed and protected by American-backed
local councils. While the city is hundreds of miles from any territory
held by the Islamic State, it sits next to territory controlled by
Turkey and its Syria rebel allies. American forces maintain a number of
bases near Manbij and run frequent patrols.
A
statement from the Islamic State, released through its Amaq news
agency, said that the suicide attacker blew up his explosive vest to
target a patrol of coalition soldiers and local militiamen near the Qasr
al-Umara restaurant in Manbij. It claimed killing and wounding nine
Americans and a number of local residents. A helicopter carried the dead
and wounded away, the group said.
In December, Mr. Trump announced that he wanted to withdraw the American forces in as little as 30 days. That decision, over the advice and then objections of his top national security aides, was followed a day later by the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Mr. Mattis signed the formal order
to begin the military withdrawal before he left the Pentagon at the
year’s end. But last week, John R. Bolton, the White House national
security adviser, outlined conditions for the withdrawal that could
leave American forces in Syria for months or even years.
So far, the military has begun withdrawing some equipment, but not yet troops, from Syria. The overall plan for the withdrawal has yet to be described in detail.
American
military officials have offered a cautionary note that there was also a
surge in violent attacks in Iraq in 2011 as United States troops were
withdrawing from that conflict. Wednesday’s attack in Syria, the
officials said, could be viewed as a signal from the Islamic State that,
contrary to Mr. Trump’s assertions that the caliphate has been
destroyed, it remains a threat.
“The
battle against ISIS is far from over,” said Charles Lister, a
counterterrorism specialist at the Middle East Institute. “Not only are
the U.S. and their local partners still engaged in open warfare against
ISIS in eastern Syria, but there have also been clear signs for many
months that ISIS maintains the ability to conduct a low-level
guerrilla-style insurgency in Syria, as typified by today’s attack.”
Some
members of Mr. Trump’s administration have said publicly that United
States forces should remain in Syria as leverage in negotiations with
President Bashar al-Assad for an end to Syria’s war, to keep Iran from
expanding its influence, to protect the United States’ Kurdish allies
and to prevent a jihadist resurgence.
Before
Wednesday’s attack, two American troops had been killed in Syria since
the first contingent of Special Operation troops entered the country in
2015.
Last March, Master Sgt.
Jonathan J. Dunbar, an elite Army commando, was killed by a roadside
bomb near Manbij; in 2016, Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott Cooper
Dayton, a bomb disposal technician, was also killed in a roadside blast
near the town of Ayn Issa.
Eric Schmitt reported from Washington and Ben Hubbard from Beirut, Lebanon. Rukmini Callimachi, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Helene Cooper contributed reporting.
Eric Schmitt and Ben Hubbard
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/world/middleeast/isis-attack-syria-troops.html
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