For nearly five years American commandos have served beside Kurdish-led forces as they battled ISIS militants across northern Syria.
Now abandoned by their U.S. partners, Kurdish fighters in Syria are embracing Russia and Syrian regime forces for help to thwart a Turkish incursion raging across northeastern Syria.
The new partnership for the Kurdish fighters may be an intelligence bonanza for Russia and Syria as U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have spent years working alongside American commandos gauging tactics, techniques, procedures, equipment, intelligence gathering and even potentially names of operators.
The SDF claim the coalition also helped build and train an anti-ISIS commando force known as Yekineyen Anti-terror, or YAT. The group, often seen decked out in U.S. night vision, weapons and sensitive optics, is tasked with hunting down ISIS sleeper cells.
A former U.S. military intelligence operator, who spent years working with special operations forces, told Military Times that the potential spillover of sensitive tradecraft or information by the SDF was “super problematic," but also a symptom of the lack of a genuine strategy in the region.
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Retired Marine Maj. Fred Galvin, a former recon and Raider commander who served in Afghanistan, told Military Times that it was “critical†for special operators to safeguard personally identifiable information as well as tactics, techniques and procedures used on the battlefield.
“Compromise of this information places SOF at great risk and removes their focus on the mission if they know the enemy can target their family at home,†Galvin said.
At times, special operations forces may work with partner forces using fake names, especially if there is an insider threat, Galvin explained.
“SOF has tried to mitigate it, they always do — it’s just that we’ve never had a force completely defect to an opposition like this before,†the former defense official said.
https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2019/10/15/us-spec-ops-secrets-could-fall-into-hands-of-russians-and-syrians-in-pullout/?utm_campaign=Socialflow+ARM&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2kcYSONaue5nfDscLXbQvf1BLYOcIsUDhD5WMabxNzJRRt1hkizItl69o
