How the US tries to prevent the re-emergence of IS in Syria | DW News

The US has repeatedly said that it is committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS. "We don't want to give ISIS an opportunity to exploit what's going on," White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday, adding, "They love nothing more than ungoverned space." The United States maintains a considerable military presence in the Middle East, with forces in more than a dozen countries and on ships throughout the region’s waters. That presence has expanded in 2024 as the United States focuses on deterring and defeating threats from Iran and its network of armed affiliates in the region. As of October 2024, US defense officials said there were some forty-thousand service members in the Middle East, many on ships at sea in the region. In total, the United States has military facilities across at least nineteen sites—eight of them considered to be permanent by many regional analysts —in countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. military also uses large bases in Djibouti and Turkey, which are part of other regional commands but often contribute significantly to US operations in the Middle East.