Date: Dec 21, 2018 Source: The Daily Star U.S. likely to end air campaign against Daesh in Syria Reuters WASHINGTON/BEIRUT: The United States will likely end its air campaign against Daesh (ISIS) in Syria when it pulls out troops, U.S. officials said Thursday, sealing an abrupt reversal of policy that has alarmed Western allies as well as Washington’s Kurdish battle partners. NATO allies France and Germany said Washington’s change of course on Syria risks damaging the fight against Daesh. Some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans said the troop pullout also strengthened the hand of Russia and Iran in the country. France, a leading member of the U.S.-led coalition against Daesh, said it would keep its troops in northern Syria for now and contested Trump’s assertion that the group has been defeated in the country. “Daesh has not been wiped from the map nor have its roots. The last pockets of this terrorist organization must be defeated militarily once and for all,” French Defense Minister Florence Parly said on Twitter. France has about 1,100 troops in Iraq and Syria providing logistics, training and heavy artillery support as well as fighter jets. In Syria it has dozens of special forces, military advisers and some foreign office personnel. Trump defended his decision, tweeting that he was fulfilling a promise from his 2016 presidential campaign to leave Syria. The U.S. was doing the work of other countries with little in return and it was “time for others to finally fight,” he wrote. U.S. officials said the troop withdrawal is expected to mean an end to the U.S. air campaign against Daesh in Syria. The U.S.-led air war has been critical to rolling back the militants there and in neighboring Iraq, with more than 100,000 bombs and missiles fired at targets in the two countries since 2015.Still, one U.S. official said a final decision on the air campaign had not been made and did not rule out some kind of support for partners and allies. The U.S. told the U.N. Security Council it was committed to the “permanent destruction” of Daesh in Syria and would keep pushing for the withdrawal of Iranian-backed forces in the country. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have told Reuters that U.S. commanders on the ground are concerned about the impact of a quick withdrawal and were surprised by the troop pullout decision. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which have been fighting the militants with U.S. support for three years, said the withdrawal of troops would grant the extremists breathing space to regroup at a critical stage in the conflict and leave Syrians stuck between “the claws of hostile parties” fighting for territory in the 7-year-old war. The SDF is in the final stages of a campaign to recapture areas seized by the militants. But it faces the threat of a military incursion by Turkey, which considers the Kurdish YPG fighters who spearhead the force to be a terrorist group, and Syrian forces committed to restoring Assad’s control over the whole country. The SDF said the battle against Daesh had reached a decisive phase that required more support, not a precipitate U.S. withdrawal. A senior U.S. official last week said the extremist group was down to its last 1 percent of the territory it once held.