As U.S.-backed fighters in Syria continue to box the remnants of ISIS into a smaller and smaller corner of Syria, the American general preparing to take commend of the region says the end is near for the 2,000 or so remaining fighters.
“I think that we are very close to finishing the physical destruction of the caliphate,” said Lt. Gen. Frank McKenzie, President Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Central Command, at his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday. “I wouldn’t want to put a timeline on it, but it’s coming close.”
McKenzie warned once ISIS no longer holds any territory in Syria, it will simply go underground and fight on as an insurgency, as it has in neighboring Iraq.
But McKenzie also pointed to Iraq as a model for how the counter ISIS campaign can end successfully, so long as local forces have the ability to keep insurgents intact.
“We are seeing the fruits of the military campaign in Iraq,” McKenzie told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I don’t want to oversell it because ISIS is still active in pockets in Iraq, but Iraqi security forces are generally proving effective at squashing them when they appear.”
Achieving peace in Syria, McKenzie conceded, will be far more difficult because of the ongoing civil war and the interference from Russia and Iran, which have both propped up the regime of President Bashar Assad.
“I think the solution in Syria that we would like to see would be a politically informed solution, where all parties have a seat at the table,” testified McKenzie. “But the military component of that is coming … very near to an end.”
Currently the Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, are in the third phase of what’s been dubbed “Operation Roundup” in an area of Syria, located in the Middle Euphrates River Valley.
The U.S. military estimates there are approximately 2,000 ISIS fighters left operating in less than 1 percent of the territory they once held.
“As we degrade their capabilities and push them into an ever-smaller box, ISIS continues to employ more and more desperate measures,” said Maj. Gen. Patrick Roberson, commanding general of the coalition, in a statement issued Tuesday. “These tactics won’t succeed.”
One goal that has so far eluded the U.S. is the capture or killing of notorious ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose death has been rumored several times but never confirmed.
“I think he’s a very scared man running for his life somewhere in the desert near the Euphrates river,” McKenzie said, while downplaying the importance of eliminating him.
“I would just note, as long as you’re concerned about whether you’re going to die in the next hour or so, it’s hard to plot attacks against Detroit.”
McKenzie’s confirmation and promotion for four-star rank seem assured since he faces no opposition in Congress.
He will replace Gen. Joseph Votel, who has been U.S. Central Commander since March 2016.
Wednesday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis travels to Ottawa, Canada to co-host a meeting of the top 13 military contributing nations to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
