CENTCOM chief meets SDF commanders, key leaders during Middle East visit

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander General Michael "Erik" Kurilla met with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria (Rojava) to discuss the ongoing fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).

“General Kurilla met with US military commanders and servicemembers, as well as our Defeat-ISIS [campaign] partners, the Syrian Democratic Forces,” read a Monday statement by CENTCOM. Kurilla “received an update on the evolving situation in Syria and an assessment of the ongoing Defeat-ISIS campaign and efforts to prevent the resurgence of the terrorist group in the region,” the statement added.

ISIS, which was territorially defeated in 2019, has been recently attempting to regain ground, particularly after a coalition of opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in early December toppled the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

The SDF, which controls northeast Syria (Rojava), has fought to prevent the militants from reestablishing a foothold in the evolving security landscape.

Thursday’s meeting notably coincided with the SDF’s capture of an “ISIS cell leader” in eastern Syria, with support from US forces, read a CENTCOM statement published on the same day.

The SDF-led operation was part of a broader effort aimed at “degrading ISIS networks and preventing the resurgence of the terrorist group in the region,” the statement added.

In January, the SDF reported carrying out nearly 100 operations against ISIS in 2024, capturing more than 270 suspects and eliminating several of its high-ranking leaders.

Kurilla’s visit also comes after the US - in the aftermath of Assad’s fall - upped its presence in Syria, increasing its troops from 900 to around 2,000.

Despite this, reports have been circulating that US President Donald Trump is considering withdrawing the American forces from Syria that constitute the primary backers of the SDF. Former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker recently told Rudaw that Trump views these forces as part of “forever wars,” which he vowed to end during his electoral campaign.

But attacks by Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militia groups are both threatening Kurdish-held territories in Rojava and prompting the SDF to scale back anti-ISIS operations to redeploy on the northern frontlines.

Turkey views the People’s Protection Units (YPG) - the backbone of the SDF - as the Syrian front for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Ankara designates both the PKK and the YPG as terrorist groups.

Regional tour

Kurilla’s meeting with the SDF commanders was part of a broader regional tour, during which he held a “series of high-level engagements… with key leaders and service members” in Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, between Wednesday and Saturday.

During the first leg of his visit, Kurilla visited Israel where he reaffirmed “the ironclad military-to-military relationship” between the US and Israel. He met with multiple senior security and defense officials in Israel “to discuss the current regional security situation… the continued efforts to deepen the military partnership… and to increase the interoperability” between the forces of the two countries.

Next, Kurilla visited Jordan and Syria.

In Jordan, he met with the chairman of Amman’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, Major General Yousef Al-Hnaity, and other Jordanian leaders to discuss “the evolving security situation in the region, deepening the bilateral defense relationship between the US and Jordan, and further expanding the military-to-military relationship” between the two countries. In Syria, Kurilla met with the SDF leadership.

The final leg of Kurilla’s tour took him to Saudi Arabia where he met with the US’s “Saudi and Yemeni partners.” He met with the Chief of General Staff of the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces, General Fayyad bin Hamed al-Ruwayli, to discuss “shared security concerns, the importance of joint readiness and interoperability, and their [US and Saudi Arabia] mutual commitment to addressing evolving regional threats.”

The CENTCOM commander also met with the Chief of Staff of the Yemeni Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Sagheer Hamoud Ahmed Aziz to discuss the “ongoing efforts to combat the [Ansarullah, commonly referred to as the] Houthis” and the US’s designation of the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

The US State Department on Tuesday announced the designation of the Houthis as an FTO due to their “activities [which] threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East,” as well as “the safety of our [US’s] closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade.”

Ansarullah, a key member of the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance,’ intensified attacks on Israeli commercial vessels or vessels affiliated with Israel in the Red Sea since October 2023, during the Gaza War between Palestinian movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The group claimed these attacks were intended to alleviate pressure on their Palestinian allies in Gaza.

CENTCOM's Monday statement quoted Kurilla as saying that the face-to-face meetings were “imperative to building and maintaining strong, effective relationships with our partners” and to “best understand the unique challenges, complexities, and opportunities to safeguard stability and counter malign activities” in the region.

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