During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) questioned General Bryan P. Fenton, the Commander of the United States Special Operations Command, about U.S. military efforts in Syria.
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00:00Madam Chair. Thank you, Senator Shaheen. We'll move to Senator Rosen. Well, thank you, Chairwoman
00:05Ernst, Ranking Member Slotkin, for holding this hearing. It's very important. I'd also like to
00:09thank General Fenton and Mr. Jenkins for testifying today and for your service. Excuse me, I'm going
00:15to scoot in a little bit here. Service to our nation. I want to talk about special operations
00:21forces in Syria because the U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces, the SDF, they share an
00:29interest in preventing an ISIS resurgence in northeastern Syria. Any escalation in the region,
00:36which is Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, and the central government in Damascus engage
00:40military with the SDF would lead to instability that we know ISIS could exploit. That is extremely
00:49concerning, as is the possibility that such instability, combined with destabilizing efforts
00:55from Iran and its proxies could cause SDF personnel guarding ISIS prisons and displaced persons
01:02camps to leave their posts in order to defend their territory. This would open the door to
01:07the possible escape of captured ISIS fighters and their families, as we saw that just play
01:12out in 2019. So, General Fenton, given our SOF partnership with the SDF and the Defeat ISIS campaign,
01:20including security training and assistance, what are SOF and the SDF doing to prevent breakouts
01:26from SDF-run prisons and displaced persons camps to ensure that captured ISIS fighters and their
01:32families do not return to the battle space? I know this is a question that geographically pertains
01:39to CENTCOM, but are troops performing these counterterrorism missions are special operation forces?
01:45Senator, I think the very first thing we do is partner with our SDF partners. It's almost
01:54a decade now, and I can get back and certainly provide written on the record how long we've
02:00done it, but I think it's about a decade, is disrupt, degrade, and work to defeat ISIS in Syria.
02:06It's a threat, certainly, to the United States, as we've laid out before, and many of the committees
02:12have come before you have talked about it. But I think the first thing we do is disrupt and degrade
02:17ISIS along with SDF counterparts. That certainly vectors into protecting the prisons and the camps.
02:25And I think that, you know, if you look at it, that's keeping improvised explosive ISIS bombers from
02:32attacking those, creating a level of, or opportunities for breakout. That is taking action in places that
02:42may not be close to the camps, but we know have planning going on in the camps. So I think there's
02:45many things your SOFT team is doing along with our SDF partners to, first and foremost, and that is the
02:51mission, disrupt and degrade and diminish ISIS as per the CENTCOM and SECDEF direction, and also protect
02:58those camps from a breakout and a prison as well. Thank you. And I'm going to direct this question
03:04to both of you, staying on the same topic, because how does a continued elimination of ISIS leadership,
03:09and which SOFT you have accomplished time and time again, impact ISIS ability to plan and carry out
03:16attacks on U.S. forces and SDF-front prisons and displaced persons camps? And what are we doing more
03:22specifically to degrade Iranian-aligned militias from attacking or attempting to attack U.S.
03:28and coalition forces? And Mr. Jenkins, we can start with you and go on to the general, please.
03:34Thank you, ma'am. And we see all those problems clear-eyed for sure, and thank you for sharing
03:40that concern with us. As General Fenton alluded to, looking at what SOFT can control, what we can do
03:46in this space, we take that very seriously. We are at the leading edge to make sure that our SDF
03:51partners can maintain control of those prisons, that they can repatriate where appropriate and when
03:57possible, so that we can decrease the population of potential breakout and under difficult situations.
04:04And then in terms of decreasing malign influence, we have to make sure that, similar to China,
04:09that we are deterring wherever possible, whether it's at the level of armed conflict or below with
04:15irregular warfare. We have the ability and lots of tools across the spectrum to make sure that we
04:20are deterring them from being in the battle space where they want to be and where they're trying to be.
04:25Thank you. General Fenton, anything to add?
04:27Senator, I would offer on the ISIS piece, I think is very important, as you've alluded to,
04:33to keep the pressure on ISIS by degrading their leadership, their operational, the operational
04:39experience personnel, the communicators, financiers, all these things come together for attacks not only
04:46in the Middle East, but also in Europe and against our homeland. ISIS is an ex-ops threat. So I think
04:58that is the multiple responsibility for your special operations teammates, not only ISIS,
05:06al-Shabaab, and al-Qaeda, but getting after these layers is really important to keep any of those
05:11terrorist groups from being able to plan and execute a DACA on the homeland.
05:16Thank you. I'll yield back, but I'm going to actually ask a question for the record about the
05:21Houthi relations with al-Shabaab, so I'm glad you brought that up because it's critically important
05:25we discuss that as well. Thank you.