BAGHDAD (AP) – President Barack Obama’s envoy to the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group said he visited northern Syria over the weekend to review the ongoing fight against the extremist group, marking the first visit by a senior administration official to Syria since the beginning of the U.S.-led campaign against IS in August 2014.
A coalition official said Brett McGurk was joined by British and French officials in Kobani, where Kurdish forces aided by U.S.-led airstrikes drove back IS militants a year ago, handing the extremists one of their biggest defeats.
The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media.
McGurk, in a series of Tweets, said the visit was meant to assess progress in the campaign against IS and discuss the next steps in the Syria campaign with “battle tested” and multi-ethnic anti-IS fighters. He added that he paid his respects to over 1,000 Kurdish martyrs who died in the Kobani battle.
“ISIL terrorists do not stand a chance in the face of the resilient people of Kobani, Tikrit, Ramadi, and soon Raqqa and Mosul,” he posted.