U.S. Central Command walked back comments made Wednesday morning by Gen. Lloyd Austin about American special operators working with Kurdish forces on the ground in Syria.
Austin, appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said U.S. special operations forces in northern Syria “began to engage elements like the YPG.”
The YPG, an acronym for the People’s Protection Units, is a Kurdish fighting force that the U.S. has been supporting in its fight against the Islamic State in Syria. While the U.S. program to train and equip moderate Syrians has failed to produce a significant number of battle-ready forces, Kurdish forces such as the YPG have had success on the battlefield.
“What our special operations forces have done in northern Syria is they didn’t wait for the New Syrian Force program or train and equip program to fully develop,” Austin said at the hearing. “At the very onset, they began to engage elements like the YPG and enable those elements, and they are making a difference on the battlefield.”
Central Command released a statement Wednesday afternoon to clarify the general’s comments, saying he was referring to the “coordinating relationship that U.S. Special Operations Forces share with Syrian anti-ISIL forces.”
The statement stressed that any advising or cooperation happened in northern Iraq, not on the ground in Syria. “There are no U.S. military forces on the ground in Syria, nor have we conducted any U.S. military training of indigenous Syrian forces in Syria.”
It capped a difficult day for the general, who endured blistering criticism from senators over the administration’s handling of the crisis in Syria. Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., clashed with Austin over the general’s opinion that a safe zone is unnecessary in Syria. Austin also acknowledged that “four or five” moderate Syrian rebels are still in the fight, which senators termed “a total failure.”
