Brett McGurk: Baghdadi was targeted in an area with dozens of Turkish military positions

Former US envoy Brett McGurk has published an article in The Washington Post about the major accomplishment of the killing of ISIS mercenary leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which he considered good news for all civilized countries.

In his article, McGurk pointed to the high professionalism of US special forces and intelligence analysts in the killing of al-Baghdadi deep in northwestern Syria, but added: "This would not have happened without the coordination with the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria, but the US withdrawal from there would have a negative impact On the next operations. "

Baghdadi, according to McGurk, is not an easily replaceable leader.

McGurk believes this is the ideal time to build on the success achieved by eliminating the material succession of ISIS and acting on what is likely to be a set of intelligence pulled out of the Baghdadi compound.

Certainly, our analysts are afraid of this information now, and this will lead to the rise of ISIS sleeper cells and networks throughout Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, but our sudden withdrawal from Syria will make it difficult to handle. US special forces have already left positions overseeing ISIS's former strongholds, including Raqqa and Manbij, where major attacks on Europe have been organized from there, and these areas are now under the control of Russia and the Syrian regime, preventing us from acting on targeted information.

He also points to an important point here, pointing out that Baghdadi was targeted not in northeastern Syria or in Iraqi territory but was targeted in northwestern Syria and only a few miles from the Turkish border, and in Idlib province, where dozens of Turkish military sites have been located since Early 2018.

He pointed out that this operation was launched from Iraqi territory, hundreds of miles away in Iraq, instead of US bases in NATO ally Turkey. The United States reportedly notified Turkey of the raid only when our troops approached its border, the same notification we would have sent to adversaries such as Russia and Syria.

Idlib has become the largest terrorist sanctuary in the world, with approximately 40,000 foreign fighters entering Syria during the civil war, most of whom came through Turkey to northwestern Syria.

Today, Idlib is largely controlled by a branch of al-Qaeda in Syria, which was very hospitable to the leader of the Islamic State's mercenaries, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and has a symbiotic relationship with Turkish-backed mercenaries.

Brett McGurk believes that this remains a serious threat to US national security; unfortunately, our ability to obtain information in these areas will not depend on Turkey but on other allies in Syria, especially the SDF. It was no surprise to hear President Trump's assertion that the credible information that led to Baghdadi came from the SDF. This was the case for almost all similar operations targeting ISIS leaders in Syria.

All this explains why the decision to evacuate fixed positions and allow Turkey to attack the SDF by extremist forces backed by Turkey was a major strategic mistake. It unveiled what was a stable part of the country, and injected new representatives into the former “caliphate” that harbored and empowered IS and al-Qaeda. .

The subsequent decision to return US troops to a remote area with a small oil field on a legally questionable mission to protect it from ISIS has no meaning. What was important was not to withdraw from northeastern Syria, to ensure that ISIS cannot reconstitute it, not to protect the oil fields.

The former US envoy to the international coalition believes that Baghdadi's death could diminish the appeal of ISIS to extremists, and the United States can work with its partners around the world to reinforce this success through raids on IS cells in other countries. But on the ground in Syria - where ISIS is planning its future - it is now difficult to consolidate this achievement. US forces have already abandoned populated areas, and the SDF has had to turn to Russia as a new partner in cities where the United States had only a month ago local support, access, and intelligence.