Pentagon Affirms Intelligence Coordination with SDF in Syria

A US Air Force B-1B Lancer and crew, being deployed to launch strikes as part of the multinational response to Syria's use of chemical weapons, is seen in this image released from Al Udeid Air Base, Doha, Qatar on April 14, 2018. US Air Force/Handout via Reuters
A US Air Force B-1B Lancer and crew, being deployed to launch strikes as part of the multinational response to Syria's use of chemical weapons, is seen in this image released from Al Udeid Air Base, Doha, Qatar on April 14, 2018. US Air Force/Handout via Reuters
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Pentagon Affirms Intelligence Coordination with SDF in Syria

A US Air Force B-1B Lancer and crew, being deployed to launch strikes as part of the multinational response to Syria's use of chemical weapons, is seen in this image released from Al Udeid Air Base, Doha, Qatar on April 14, 2018. US Air Force/Handout via Reuters
A US Air Force B-1B Lancer and crew, being deployed to launch strikes as part of the multinational response to Syria's use of chemical weapons, is seen in this image released from Al Udeid Air Base, Doha, Qatar on April 14, 2018. US Air Force/Handout via Reuters

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that US troops were coordinating with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from an intelligence perspective to pursue ISIS militants in Syria.

“We work with our SDF partners on the ground to go after ISIS. And they are strong fighters in that regard,” Kirby said.

His comments came after the New York Times published a story about March 2019 airstrikes in Syria, revealing the presence of intelligence coordination between the US and SDF forces.

The newspaper also said that several international organizations have revealed that the Kurdish-led group mistreated local people, particularly the Arabs in eastern Syria.

Kirby said Washington coordinates with the SDF because it knows the terrain.

“They know the area. They certainly do support the counter ISIS effort from an intelligence perspective,” he said at a press briefing held on Monday.

However, the Pentagon Press Secretary refused to comment on the accusations that the group might have exploited the US military power and carried out certain violations.

“We are always mindful of our obligations when we're dealing with partner forces, about the rule of law and about responsible use of military power and going after a common threat like ISIS. And that's an ongoing concern. It's an iterative process. It’s something that we stress to partners throughout the conduct of any military operation,” Kirby said.

He added that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has asked General McKenzie to brief him more specifically on the airstrikes carried out in March 2019.



Syria’s New Information Minister Promises Free Press

Syrian Minister of Information Mohamed al-Omar speaks to members of the media during a meeting in Damascus on December 31, 2024. (AFP)
Syrian Minister of Information Mohamed al-Omar speaks to members of the media during a meeting in Damascus on December 31, 2024. (AFP)
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Syria’s New Information Minister Promises Free Press

Syrian Minister of Information Mohamed al-Omar speaks to members of the media during a meeting in Damascus on December 31, 2024. (AFP)
Syrian Minister of Information Mohamed al-Omar speaks to members of the media during a meeting in Damascus on December 31, 2024. (AFP)

Syria's minister of information in the country's transitional government told AFP he is working towards a free press and committed to "freedom of expression", after decades of tight control under the country's former rulers.

"We are working to consolidate freedoms of the press and expression that were severely restricted" in areas controlled by the former government of Bashar al-Assad, said the minister, Mohamed al-Omar, after opposition fighters on December 8 ended more than five decades of rule by the Assad clan.

Syria's ruling Baath party and the Assad family dynasty heavily curtailed all aspects of daily life, including freedom of the press and expression with the media a tool of those in power.

Reporters Without Borders, a freedom of information watchdog, ranked Syria second-last on its 2024 World Press Freedom Index, ahead only of Eritrea and behind Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

"There was a heavy restriction on freedom of the press and expression under the regime which practiced censorship. In the period to come we are working on the reconstruction of a media landscape that is free, objective and professional," Omar said during an interview with AFP on Tuesday.

He is part of the interim administration installed in Damascus by the victorious opposition coalition led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

The group has its origins in the Syrian branch of the Al-Qaeda group and is designated a terrorist organization by numerous governments, but has sought to soften its image in recent years.

Diplomats from around the region and from the West have made contact with Syria's new rulers, who have also vowed to protect the country's religious and ethnic minorities.

Omar was previously minister of information in the self-proclaimed Salvation Government, the civil administration set up in 2017 by HTS in the opposition holdout of Idlib province, in Syria's northwest. It was from Idlib that the opposition began their lightning advance towards Damascus, 13 years into the country's civil war.

After the conflict erupted in 2011 with the government's brutal repression of pro-democracy protests, Assad tightened restrictions on independent journalism.

- A different way -

"We don't want to continue in the same way, that is, have an official media whose aim is to polish the image of the ruling power," Omar said.

Following Assad's overthrow and flight to Moscow, Syrian media outlets which had trumpeted his regime's glories quickly adopted a revolutionary fervor.

Omar said the new administration wants to "reduce bureaucracy and facilitate the work of foreign press teams" who were intensely scrutinized by Assad's government and had difficulty obtaining visas to work freely.

On December 13, the Information Ministry released a statement saying "media workers who were part of the war and propaganda machine of the fallen Assad regime and contributed directly or indirectly to promoting its crimes," would be "held to account".

But Bassam Safar, head of the Damascus branch of the anti-Assad Syrian journalists' union, previously based abroad, said earlier that no media worker should be held responsible "unless it is proven that they took part in the bloodshed."

That, he said, "is the business of the courts."

Saffar said the Syrian people should reconcile with their journalists, to establish "a new media environment built on freedom" and human rights.

On Tuesday Omar held an exchange with dozens of Syrian journalists to discuss the transition.

"We want media reflecting Syrian cultures in their diversity, reflecting their ambitions, and that transmit their preoccupations and serve as a link between the people and the administration", Omar told AFP.