Pentagon: US in Syria 'for the long haul;' hails Peshmerga in 'Operation Viking Hammer'

Michael Mulroy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense, affirmed on Monday that the US does “expect to be” in Syria “for the long haul.”

Citing the Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, Amb. James Jeffrey, Mulroy said that the US was “not in a bad situation” in Syria.

He explained that by adding, “We have a very capable partner,” referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF.)

The territory controlled by the SDF contains “a lot of the oil resources and the arable land for agriculture,” Mulroy continued, “and we are there with them.”

Mulroy also praised the role of Kurdish forces in “Operation Viking Hammer,” a little-known military operation, carried out by the Peshmerga and a small group of special US forces, in the earliest stages of the 2003 Iraq war.

Read the full article and more in Kurdistan 24.