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World
Gen. Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, holds a press briefing at the Pentagon, March 15, 2023. Photo: Pentagon
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Wednesday defended his recent trip to northeast Syria (Rojava), saying it was a “routine” visit to troops in the area. Turkey had summoned the US ambassador in Ankara over the general’s surprise visit to the Kurdish-held region.
General Milley visited troops in Rojava on March 4, meeting with US military officials and troops who train and support the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on March 8 that they had “invited” the US ambassador to Turkey Jeff Flake and handed him “necessary warnings and messages" over the American commander's alleged meeting with with the Kurdish authorities in Rojava. He added that what worries them is not the meeting but the continuation of Washington's support for the Kurdish fighters in Rojava.
General Milley said during a Pentagon news conference on Wednesday that the visit was a “routine” one.
"For my visit, it was nothing more than a routine troop visit to determine the task purpose mission, to go out and check that, see how we are doing, and assess things like force protection, etcetera. We have got almost 1,000 troops in Syria, and they are at risk. They are attacked from time to time with various types of munitions by various actors that are in the area of Syria. So I want to go over and check on them and to make sure that the mission is validated and I can come back and report it to the secretary," he explained.
"With respect to Turkey, Turkey and the United States have a common interest here [Syria] and we have had a common interest for years - we have been there for years. And the common interest is to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS," he added.
The US leads the global coalition against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Ankara is a member of the coalition but has not contributed much.
Turkey considers the People's Protection Units (YPG), which is the backbone of the SDF, the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey but listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara.
Turkey has repeatedly called on the US to cease its military support for the YPG, claiming that it is a threat to Ankara’s national security.
Ankara has carried out three major military operations against the SDF in Syria since 2016, and is threatening to launch a fresh one.
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