Small Wars Journal

U.S. Special Operations Secrets Could Fall Into Hands of Russians and Syrians in Pullout

Tue, 10/15/2019 - 3:50pm

U.S. Special Operations Secrets Could Fall Into Hands of Russians and Syrians in Pullout by Shawn Snow – Military Times

For nearly five years American commandos have served beside Kurdish-led forces as they battled ISIS militants across northern Syria.

Now abandoned by their U.S. partners, Kurdish fighters in Syria are embracing Russia and Syrian regime forces for help to thwart a Turkish incursion raging across northeastern Syria.

The new partnership for the Kurdish fighters may be an intelligence bonanza for Russia and Syria as U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have spent years working alongside American commandos gauging tactics, techniques, procedures, equipment, intelligence gathering and even potentially names of operators.

The SDF claim the coalition also helped build and train an anti-ISIS commando force known as Yekineyen Anti-terror, or YAT. The group, often seen decked out in U.S. night vision, weapons and sensitive optics, is tasked with hunting down ISIS sleeper cells.

A former U.S. military intelligence operator, who spent years working with special operations forces, told Military Times that the potential spillover of sensitive tradecraft or information by the SDF was “super problematic," but also a symptom of the lack of a genuine strategy in the region…

Read on.