Nick Paton Walsh, Ghazi Balkiz and Scott McWhinnie, CNN: Where does this end? Dangers if US leaves Syria -- or stays
With US special operations forces in Northern Syria (CNN)It was not the freshness of the meat or piquancy of the sauce that made the chicken kebab remarkable, but that it was being eaten by a US special operations forces commander on a dusty street in Raqqa, once the self-declared capital of ISIS.
Maj. Gen. Jamie Jarrard, who runs special operations in Iraq and Syria, bought 20 or so of the kebabs next to the remains of a rusty, tireless water tanker the coalition blew up months earlier, because, said a local trader, an ISIS fighter was manning an antiaircraft gun near it.
Raqqa has changed immeasurably in months, as life rushes back in despite the mines that still litter its rubble, and the unknowable number of bodies that rubble may still contain.
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Commentaries And Analysis On What The U.S. Should Do In Syria
For US in Syria, End Game Gets Murkier as ISIS Shrinks -- Military.com/AP
Will new American efforts in Syria be a game changer? -- Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post
US risks another long, costly entanglement in Syria -- The Australian
'Mission creep' fears rise after US airstrike in Syria -- Washington Times
Mattis dismisses fears US being dragged into a broader conflict -- Arab News/REUTERS/AFP
Mattis: 'Self-Defense' Attack Doesn't Mean US Getting into Syrian Civil War -- VOA
U.S. dismisses fears of wider war after deadly Syria clashes -- Reuters
