US-allied Syria Kurdish commander warns of growing IS threat
ABC News
The chief commander for the U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish-led force says the Islamic State group is a growing threat, despite the killing of its leader in a U.S. raid last week
HASSAKEH, Syria -- The Islamic State group is a growing threat in northeastern Syria despite the killing of its leader in a U.S. commando operation last week, says the chief commander of the U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish-led force.
Mazloum Abdi, who heads the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, warned that IS fighters are still very much present in the wake of a deadly attack by the militants on a Syrian prison last month. That attack killed 121 fighters from the Syrian Kurdish-led force, he added.
“We are surrounded by the Islamic State,” Abdi said in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press on Thursday night. “We have said this many times. If we don’t strive to fight IS now, they will spread again.”
A tenuous calm has prevailed in the region since IS's spectacular Jan. 20 attack on Gweiran Prison, or al-Sinaa — a Kurdish-run facility in Syria's northeast where over 3,000 IS militants and young boys, mainly sons of IS fighters, were held.
