The SDF, a Kurdish-led coalition of militias in northern Syria, confirmed dozens of operations against Islamic State terrorists in the past two months, coordinated with both the administrations of President Donald Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden. The Islamic State, a genocidal terrorist group, once controlled a significant percentage of Syrian territory during the Assad regime which it used to centralize its “caliphate” experiment in the “capital” of Raqqa. The SDF, working in coordination with America, destroyed the ISIS caliphate in 2017, an event that preceded an extended lull in the greater civil war in the country between Assad and various anti-Assad rebel forces in the country.
That lull ended dramatically in November when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaeda affiliate, seized control of the second-largest city in the country, Aleppo. The HTS surprise attack prompted mass desertions from Assad’s army and its ultimate collapse, allowing HTS to take over Damascus on December 7. Assad himself fled the country to Russia, where he received political asylum, in the hours between December 7 and 8. (Read More)
