The U.S. conducted its first strikes in Syria against a group other than the Islamic State on Friday, defending U.S.-trained members of the New Syrian Forces from an attack likely launched by al-Nusra.
On Friday morning, members of the New Syrian Forces who were trained by the U.S. were attacked by about 50 personnel, but were able to repel the attack with the help of U.S. air support, Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday.
This marks the first time the U.S. has come to the aid of the Syrians it trained and equipped, who recently re-entered the battlefield, and also the first time U.S. assets have conducted strikes in Syria against a group other than the Islamic State.
“The moderate opposition forces there continue to be attacked on multiple fronts. This includes from the Assad regime as well as violent extremists like al-Nusra front and ISIL,” Davis said.
“Our support to the [New Syrian Forces] could and will and in fact already has included defensive fire support when they are under attack,” he continued.
He declined to get into specifics on rules of engagement, such as if the U.S. could take strikes if a group were organizing an attack against Syrian fighters or if it had to wait for an attack to be launched.
The administration has long said it would not strike the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, despite an ongoing civil war in the country that has killed more than 200,000 Syrians. Some on Capitol Hill, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have said the U.S. should not limit its strikes to Islamic State targets and that Assad must be taken out of power to have stability in Syria.
“The president’s goal of degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL will never be accomplished while the conflict in Syria continues,” McCain said in a July statement. “Bashar Assad’s war on the Syrian people has fostered the conditions for ISIL’s continued growth, recruitment and radicalization of Muslims across the world.”
Davis said the Pentagon had no reason to believe the personnel involved in Friday’s attack were affiliated with the Assad regime.
The attackers “look an awful lot like” al-Nusra, though the Pentagon had not yet confirmed the al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group was behind the attack, he said.
CNN also reported that al-Nusra had claimed credit for the attack.
Davis emphasized that while the U.S. would defend its trainees against those who attacked them, offensive American strikes would only target the Islamic State.
“Offensive operations that we’re there to provide, the offensive operations that the participants in our train-and-equip program have signed themselves to fight is ISIL, full stop,” he said. “That doesn’t change our obligation or our capacity or our willingness to provide defensive support to these people no matter who should attack them.”
The Syrian train-and-equip program has struggled to get recruits and has only graduated 60 trained fighters so far.
Officials have said that’s largely due to an inefficient, but necessary, vetting process, but some including McCain have said it’s because Syrians’ top priority is defeating Assad, not the Islamic State.
“The administration is telling Syrians to forego fighting their greatest enemy, the Assad regime, which is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people,” McCain said in a statement last month. “That is why it is no small wonder that our train-and-equip program in Syria is so anemic.”
