U.S. Sends Civilian Team to Syria to Help the Displaced Return Home
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITTJUNE 22, 2017
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is sending a civilian team into Syria to try to bring stability to areas
that American-backed forces have retaken from the Islamic State and to avert a humanitarian crisis, according to United States officials.
It’s not complete yet." A State Department officer has rotated through Syria over the past 18 months, reporting on the political situation in the accompanying
United States Special Operations forces who are advising American-backed Syrian Arab and Kurdish fighters combating the Islamic State.
To maintain a small American civilian footprint in a war zone, contractors funded by the United
States government will not be allowed to have American citizens working inside Syria.
The decision to send the team into the combat zone followed extensive deliberations in the American government about security, with memories still fresh about the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, an attack
that led to the deaths of the United States ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans.
As those militias have reclaimed towns and villages in eastern Syria in recent months, and are now poised to recapture Raqqa, the Islamic State’s self-declared capital, in the coming months, a sense of urgency has grown about addressing post-conflict priorities, including ensuring governance and providing aid to more than 400,000 civilians in the Raqqa province
that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has cited as in need.