US military commander in Syria briefed on anti-IS operations

By BASSEM MROUE and Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — The top U.S. military commander has visited northeast Syria where American troops and their allies are launching a campaign against the Islamic State group. A U.S. military spokesperson says Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley met commanders and troops Saturday who updated him on the ongoing operations against IS. Despite their defeat in March 2019 during which IS lost the last sliver of land it once controlled, the extremists sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in Syria and neighboring Iraq. There are currently about 900 U.S. forces on the ground in northeast Syria