U.S. Envoy Sees For Himself The Destruction Of The Islamic State War In Syria

Photo: Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State. (Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)

Washington Post: U.S. official recalls the devastation he saw on secret trip to Syria

ROME — Utter devastation greeted Brett McGurk when the presidential envoy slipped into Syria over the weekend and visited the border town of Kobane a year after Kurdish forces repelled Islamic State extremists.

The remains of some of the estimated 6,000 Islamic State fighters killed in Kobane are still being pulled from rubble, McGurk said. He and Defense Department officials who accompanied him saw the landing site of heavy weapons and ammunition the United States airdropped to the Kurds. They attended a memorial for Kurdish fighters who died and talked to others hospitalized with wounds from more recent clashes.

More than once, McGurk used the word “poignant” to describe the two-day visit to Syria that aimed to assess how things are going in the multinational campaign to beat back the Islamic State.

“It was important to see this with our own eyes and talk to people on the ground,” said McGurk, who also was joined on the secret trip by French and British officials. “It’s obviously something all of us will both remember and also reflect upon as we realize how long we have to go to defeat and destroy this barbaric terrorist organization.”

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WNU Editor: It is a war-zone .... and US planes did flatten Kobane during the height of the battle last year. But at least Brett McGurk is on the ground seeing for himself on what is happening. I also suspect that he is assessing on what is necessary to escalate U.S. involvement in this conflict .... and his final report will outline these priorities.