INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The US military is closely watching ISIS in war-ravaged Syria and Iraq (AF)Washington: The US military's
hands-off approach on the ground in Syria is ceding influence to Russia and Iran, a top lawmaker warned Tuesday, as the Pentagon said it has
seen the ISIS "resurge" in parts of the country.Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker said Moscow and Tehran have
"significant influence" in the war-ravaged Middle Eastern nation due to their years-long commitment, while President Donald Trump signals
the US could be headed for the exits there.When asked whether he wanted a greater US troop presence to shape events in Syria, Corker was
somber. "I think the administration's plans are to complete the efforts against ISIS and to not be involved," he said, using another
acronym for the terrorist group.A frustrated Corker spoke after exiting a classified briefing by Secretary of Defense James Mattis and top
generals, who explained the Pentagon's strategy to lawmakers following last weekend's missile strikes on Syria."Syria is Russia and Iran's
They will be determining the future," he said. "We may be at the table, but when you're just talking and have nothing to do with shaping
what's happening on the ground, you're just talking."Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, expressed alarm about a lack of US engagement in the
country where insurgents have waged a brutal civil war against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad."Everything in that briefing made me
more worried, not less," he said. 'All tweet, no action'"There is no military strategy on the table to deal with the malign influence of
Iran and Russia," Graham said. US President Donald Trump has said the US could exit the Syrian conflictAfter the pinpoint air strikes that
Trump telegraphed on social media, "I think Assad believes we're all tweet, no action," he added.Democrats joined in the criticism, with
Senator Chris Coons, warning that Trump's administration has "failed to deliver on a coherent plan" in Syria."If we completely withdraw, our
leverage in any diplomatic resolution or reconstruction, or any hope for a post-Assad Syria, goes away."Meanwhile, Colonel Ryan Dillon, a
spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq, said Assad's regime and Russia have not always been able to hold the
terrain recaptured from ISIS."As we look at ISIS in areas where we are not operating, where we are not supporting our partners on the
ground, there has been ISIS elements who have been able to come back and take territory (including in) some of the neighborhoods in southern
Damascus," Dillon said."We've seen ISIS start to resurge in areas west of the Euphrates River."The US military is closely watching ISIS in
Syria and Iraq, where the terrorists have lost 98 percent of the land they once held, according to the Pentagon.Progress however has halted
in recent weeks in areas where the US-led coalition is fighting ISIS through the Syrian Democratic Forces, a local proxy group, due to
Turkish military action in the north.Ankara in January launched a bloody operation around Afrin to push Kurdish fighters out of the
city.Many of the Kurds who had been engaged in anti-ISIS operations have quit that fight to support comrades in Afrin.
