The US decision to withdraw from Syria will allow ISIS to regroup at a critical stage in the conflict, Washington's Kurdish partners said on Thursday, rejecting President Donald Trump's claim that ISIS militants have been defeated.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said the withdrawal of all US troops would also leave Syrians stuck between "the claws of hostile parties" fighting for territory in the seven-year-old war, Reuters reported.
"The war against terrorism has not ended and (the ISIS group) has not been defeated," an SDF statement said.
"The decision to pull out under these circumstances will lead to a state of instability and create a political and military void in the region and leave its people between the claws of enemy forces," the SDF statement added.
According to AP, Kurdish officials and commanders met into the night, discussing their responses to the decision, and a war monitor said among the options seriously discussed was releasing thousands of ISIS militants and their families from various nationalities who are being detained in SDF-run prisons and camps.
It was not clear whether any decision was immediately taken, and SDF commanders were not immediately available for comment.
Arin Sheikhmos, a Kurdish journalist and commentator, said "we have every right to be afraid."
"If the Americans pull out and leave us to the Turks or the (Syrian) regime our destiny will be like the Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991 — million of refugees, there will be massacres. Neither the regime, not Iran nor Turkey, will accept our presence here," he told the AP.
SDF, supported by roughly 2,000 US troops, are in the final stages of a campaign to recapture areas seized by ISIS. But they face the threat of a military incursion by Turkey, which considers the Kurdish YPG fighters who spearhead the force to be a terrorist group.
Trump defended his decision on Thursday in a series of tweets, saying he was fulfilling a promise from his 2016 presidential campaign to leave the Middle Eastern nation, Reuters reported.
