As the fight against the Islamic State moves beyond its de facto capital in Raqqa, the Pentagon is readying itself for an increasingly complex battlefield in northern Syria, where U.S.-backed forces, pro-Syrian government troops and Russian jets will likely all be fighting near one another. – Washington Post’s Checkpoint
The U.S. will not slide into an expanded role in Syria’s civil war despite recent incidents that led to U.S. warplanes firing on pro-regime forces there, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Monday. – Stars and Stripes
Frederic Hof writes: In its agonizing, slow-motion campaign against ISIS in Syria, the United States will, in the end, have made the whole country safe for Assad, for Iran, and for whatever forms of resistance arise in response to the triumph of misrule, collective punishment, and humanitarian abomination. For an administration rhetorically committed to pushing back against Iran’s regional expansion, it would be a remarkable reversal and a precipitous climb-down. – Atlantic Council