Rob Manning, Friday’s al-Rawda mosque attack in North Sinai is an example of why the United States must remain involved in the Middle East. He said there are roughly 500 US forces in Syria and around 5,000 in Iraq. Defense Department officials are working on providing a better run-down of US forces in the countries as security considerations permit. Manning said that the Iraqi forces are working to improve security in areas they have retaken from IS control. “Also, coalition forces provided counter-IED training to Raqqa internal security force soldiers,” he said.

Source: Egypt Independent November 29, 2017 13:07 UTC