NORTHERN SYRIA: On a secret trip to Syria, the new commander of US forces in the Middle East said on Saturday he felt a moral obligation to enter a war zone to check on his troops and make his own assessment of progress in organising local Arab and Kurd fighters for what has been a slow campaign to push the militant Islamic State (IS) group out of Syria.

“I have responsibility for this mission, and I have responsibility for the people that we put here,” Army Gen. Joseph Votel said in an interview as dusk fell on the remote outpost where he had arrived 11 hours earlier.

“So it’s imperative for me to come and see what they’re dealing with — to share the risk they are dealing with.”

Votel, who has headed US Central Command for just seven weeks, became the highest-ranking US military officer known to have entered Syria since the US began its campaign to counter the IS group in 2014.

The circumstance was exceptional because the US has no combat units in Syria, no diplomatic relations with Syria and for much of the past two years has enveloped much of its Syria military mission in secrecy.

Votel said he brought reporters with him because, “We don’t have anything to hide. I don’t want people guessing about what we’re doing here. The American people should have the right to see what we’re doing here.” Votel flew into northern Syria from Iraq, where he had conferred on Friday with US and Iraqi military commanders.

In Syria he met with US military advisers working with Syrian Arab fighters and consulted with leaders of the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group of Kurdish and Arab fighters supported by the US.

A small group of reporters accompanied Votel under ground rules that, for security reasons, prohibited disclosing his visit until after he had left Syria.

After landing at a remote camp where American military advisers are training Syrian Arab troops in basic soldiering skills, Votel split off from the reporters who flew in with him; he then visited several other undisclosed locations in Syria before returning to the camp.

Syria is a raging war zone, torn by multiple conflicts that have created severe human suffering across much of the country. But on Saturday the US advisers camp that Votel visited was quiet. Situated about 50 miles from the nearest fighting, it was remarkably quiet.

The sharpest sound was a month-old puppy’s yapping as he ran between visitors’ legs. A light breeze nudged several bright-yellow flags of the Syrian Democratic Forces attached to small bushes and atop a post buried in an earthen berm beside a shooting range.

Aides said Votel’s flight into Syria was the first made in daylight by US forces, who have about 200 advisers on the ground.

Military ground rules for the trip prohibited reporting the kind of aircraft Votel used, the exact location of where he landed and the names and images of the US military advisers, who said they have been operating from the camp since January.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2016