US-led Colaition Admits It Has Lost Race For Border With Iraq To Syrian Army

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Army Col. Ryan Dillon. Source: centcom.mil

Last Friday, the US-led officially admitted that it lost a race for the Syrian-Iraqi border to the Syrian Army and its allies.

Now, the US welcomes the Syrian effort to defeat ISIS.

The Associated Press (source):

The U.S. military coalition fighting the Islamic State would welcome a concerted effort by the Syrian government or its Iranian-backed partner forces to defeat IS in its remaining strongholds in eastern Syria, a U.S. spokesman said Friday.

Army Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the coalition, told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. goal is to defeat IS wherever it exists. If others, including the Syrian government and its Iranian and Russian allies, want to fight the extremists as well, then “we absolutely have no problem with that,” he said, speaking from Baghdad.

“If it looks like they are making a concerted effort to move into ISIS-held areas, and if they show that they can do that, that is not a bad sign,” Dillon said, referring to forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad. “We are here to fight ISIS as a coalition, but if others want to fight ISIS and defeat them, then we absolutely have no problem with that.”

The statement followed a clear collapse of the US-backed plan to build a militant-held buffer zone between the areas controlled by the Syrian army and Iraqi government forces at the Syrian-Iraqi border.

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