The US military Middle East Command (Centcom, its abbreviation in English) reported on Wednesday (12) that its forces have assisted and facilitated more than 22 operations against ISIS in Syria over the past few weeks.
The operations, which took place between October 1 and November 6, resulted in the killing of five members of the group and the capture of 19 others, according to the agency. This announcement comes after Damascus agreed to cooperate with an international coalition against the terrorist group and two days after the visit of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to the United States.
The visit was historic — the first by a Syrian leader to the White House since the Middle Eastern country’s independence in the 1940s, and comes after decades of tension between the United States and Syria, which was ruled by Bashar al-Assad until December last year.
The fall of the dictator paved the way for Al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda fighter, to come to power. Since then, he has tried, and so far successfully, to change his image away from the terrorist group. In recent months, he has distanced Syria from its former allies, Iran and Russia, and reconnected with Türkiye, the Gulf monarchies, and the United States.
Even without the pomp reserved for other heads of state, the Syrian president achieved a partial suspension of the toughest sanctions on Damascus, which Washington announced just hours after the visit. This measure could help ease the economic crisis in the country, which was devastated by 14 years of civil war.
Later, Trump told a news conference that Shara was “a very strong leader, who came from a very difficult place” and that the United States would “do everything we can to succeed in Syria,” especially, he said, at a time of peace in the Middle East. He said, “I have confidence that he (Al-Sharaa) is capable of carrying out this mission.”
The meeting in Washington took place six months after the first contact between the two leaders in Saudi Arabia, and a few days after the US government removed Al-Sharaa from the list of persons linked to terrorism.
However, the new government is still dealing with other internal challenges. Sectarian conflicts have killed more than 2,500 people in recent months since the fall of Assad, raising doubts about Sharaa’s ability to rule and calm the country.
Al-Sharaa’s personal trajectory is in itself an image of the changes in Syrian politics. He joined Al-Qaeda in Iraq after the American invasion in 2003 and spent years in prison with American forces.
When he returned to Syria, he became one of the leaders of the rebellion against Assad. He was known at the time as Abu Muhammad al-Julani, and he was designated a terrorist in 2013, but he broke away from Al-Qaeda in 2016 and strengthened his influence in northwestern Syria.
At the end of 2024, Washington withdrew a reward of $10 million for anyone who would help in his arrest, and last week the United Nations Security Council lifted the sanctions imposed on him and his Interior Minister Anas Khattab. The United States and the United Kingdom have adopted similar initiatives.
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