Senior US General Undertakes Secret Visit to Syria

General Joseph Votel, commander of US forces in the Middle East, secretly traveled to Syria and visited part of the region, meeting with American advisors and Kurdish and Arab forces opposing Bashar al-Assad who are engaged in battle against the 'Islamic State.' This visit was conducted with a small group of journalists and lasted a total of 11 hours. The US military allowed journalists to accompany this senior commander on the condition that they would not publish any news until the end of the trip for security reasons. The Associated Press, which had one of its reporters accompany General Votel, states that he is the highest-ranking US military official whose trip to Syria has been made public. General Votel himself stated that he made this visit 'out of a sense of responsibility for the mission and those who have been deployed to Syria.' He mentioned that the reason for the journalists' presence was that 'we have nothing to hide. I do not want people to speculate about what we are doing here. The American people have the right to see what we are doing here.' The US and a coalition led by it have been conducting attacks against the forces of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria since 2014. Attacks against ISIS by this coalition are also ongoing in Iraq. Meanwhile, Washington supports the Iraqi army and a group of Syrian opposition forces in ground battles against the 'Islamic State.' Training and equipping this group of opposition forces, which mainly consists of Kurds and a group of Syrian Arabs, is part of this support. Joseph Votel, who has been in command of the 'Central Command' (US forces in West Asia) for nearly two months, stated that seeing the region and 'what the forces are facing' was 'essential' for him. He traveled from Iraq to northern Syria. In Iraq, he also met with a group of commanders of the Iraqi army. In Syria, he met with American advisors deployed to the country and consulted with leaders of the 'Syrian Democratic Forces' (anti-ISIS forces composed of Kurds and a group of Arabs). The American general also visited unspecified areas afterward. The Associated Press quoted advisors as saying this was the first daytime visit by US forces to the area, where nearly 200 US military advisors train Syrian anti-ISIS opposition forces. Military regulations do not allow for the publication of the name of the aircraft, the exact landing location, or the names and images of American advisors. The last visit by a senior US official to Syria was by Obama’s representative in the anti-ISIS coalition, Brett McGurk, who spent two days in Syria last February.