US-trained Syrian opposition fighters await new role: NPR

Al-Tanf Garrison, Syria — When Salim Turki al-Anteri led rebel forces in southern Syria this month in battle against regime forces, it was against his own former tank force.

Building on past U.S. military training and hopes for a unified Syria, the commander ordered his forces to fire warning shots with artillery in an attempt to persuade regime soldiers to abandon their tanks and leave the battlefield.

“We didn’t want to kill any soldiers,” he says of the Dec. 7 battle, the day before Damascus fell.

“We aimed left and right and then approached them,” he says. “We didn’t follow them because we knew that if we followed them, we would have to kill them.”

Unlike many military commanders who were regime supporters, most of the rank-and-file soldiers were conscripts who had no choice but to fight for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he says.

“I consider every soldier my son,” he says. And he believed that the tanks they fought with would be protected for his own forces in any form in post-Assad Syria.

Mr. Anteri, a colonel and commander of the Syrian Free Army, a small rebel group trained by the United States before the fall of Syria’s regime, was at his base next to a remote U.S. military outpost in southern Syria. He spoke with NPR. He defected from the Syrian army eight years ago to join the rebels.

His forces are now among dozens of former rebels who need to be integrated into the new Syrian security forces. Mr. Anteri, who commands about 600 fighters, was asked by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, who led the coalition that ousted President Bashar al-Assad from power, how his forces would fare in the new security forces. He said he was looking forward to being given a role.

The United States has played an uneasy role in this important region.

Al-Tanf was originally a US special forces base that has played a key role in training Syrian opposition fighters, including Anteri’s forces. It is located about 320 miles from the Syrian capital Damascus, along the main road connecting Damascus and Baghdad. Abandoned regime tanks lie on the side of the road. Nearby were discarded Syrian army uniforms, thrown away by fleeing soldiers as Assad’s regime fell.

Syria’s ruler was quickly overthrown this month in a surprise attack by rebels, who retook the country with little resistance after more than a decade of civil war. Anteri believes the regime soldiers his unit encountered did not fight back because they knew the US military was supporting the SFA. Along with adding patches with the Syrian insignia to fighters’ uniforms, he directed soldiers to wear patches with the American flag.

The U.S. military base at Al Tanf is evidence of the destabilizing role of the United States in a key strategic region. The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Syria since the Syrian civil war began in 2012. The bases it has established in the south and east over the past decade operate without any legal authority from Syria. They are affiliated with the US-led anti-ISIS coalition operating in Iraq and Syria, which will soon be disbanded.

The military presence is so uncertain that Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters earlier this month that the number of U.S. troops in Syria was more than double the 900 he had cited. He said he only recently found out about it. Iraqi military sources have reported an increasing number of troops moving into Kurdish-held northeastern Syria from a U.S. military base in the Kurdish autonomous region of Erbil over the past few months.

The US role in Syria will become clearer as new governments take office in both countries

A senior U.S. military official said expanding the U.S. military’s role in Syria would require consultation with Syria’s new administration.

“We don’t want to start just walking around Syria,” said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “It’s better to understand how they feel about it and talk to them before you do anything.”

He said until those discussions are over, the United States will continue airstrikes against Islamic State, which it largely defeated five years ago, and support for the Syrian military, which the United States trains and advises. Of course, there are also questions about what decision the incoming Trump administration will make regarding the maintenance of US forces in Syria.

The US-led anti-ISIS coalition will be disbanded at the insistence of the Iraqi government, and an agreement will be signed between the countries in its place. Under an agreement between Iraq and the United States, U.S. troops will be stationed in federally-controlled Iraq by the end of this year and in Kurdish-controlled Iraq by the end of 2026.

U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have become a lightning rod for Iranian-backed militias. In January, an Iraqi militia claimed responsibility for a drone attack on Tower 22, a US-backed base in al-Tanf in northeastern Jordan. Three American soldiers were killed in this attack.

Since 2003, when the United States and its allies toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and disbanded the Iraqi army, proliferating Iranian proxy militias have used Syria as a conduit and It has poured weapons into Iraq and Lebanon. Assad is a member of the Alawite religious minority, backed by Iran and, more recently, Russia.

Syrian Kurdish forces, which broke away from Assad’s regime in 2012 to create an autonomous region, remain a key security ally of the United States and were defeated in ISIS’ last standout in Baghouz, Syria, in 2019. contributed to the military defeat of ISIS. This autonomous region in northeastern Syria also protects oil fields.

ISIS has shrunk considerably since taking control of large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, but it still maintains a presence in Syria, including near historic Palmyra, the birthplace of SFA commander Anteri.

Meanwhile, former rebels await instructions on new roles

Three weeks after decades of regime rule came to an abrupt end, victories by different Syrian fighter groups continue to sink in.

At a guesthouse next to a US military base, SFA official Saeed Saif shows off a wide range of equipment found at a Russian military base in Syria that was abandoned after fighting in early December.

US officials, including senior military officials, said Russia is expected to make concessions to Syria’s new government to keep the strategic deep-water port in the coastal city of Tartus.

Old gas masks and brand new Kalashnikov rifles have been found at an abandoned Russian military base, some still piled up in shipping crates. There are communication devices for sending encrypted messages and documents and files retrieved from underground storage. Operating room.

“I don’t know what they’re saying,” Saif said. “I’m waiting for someone to translate it for me.”

Even more puzzling is what appears to be a scorpion paperweight wrapped in plastic and attached to a pedestal.

“They used them for decoration,” says Saif.