ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US President Joe Biden’s pick to lead American troops in the Middle East said earlier this week that he has worked with Kurds since 2004, describing them as reliable and capable. “I have worked with our Kurdish partners and found them to be very reliable and very capable. I have worked with them since 2004 on my first tour in Iraq and as recently as the counter-ISIS fight up to 2014. I have found them to be incredibly capable and reliable partner[s],” Army Lt. Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, who has been appointed by Biden to be the next commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), testified at a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing for his confirmation to assume the position, on Tuesday. Kurilla, 55, is expected to face little opposition to replace Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie who has led CENTCOM since March 2019. Biden’s pick has participated in all US major military operations since he joined the army. He was injured in a firefight in Iraq in 2005 when he was battalion commander. Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State’s main allies on the ground in the Region and northeast Syria (Rojava). Biden said on February 3 that his country will continue working with Peshmerga and SDF. “We will continue working with our close allies and partners - the Syrian Democratic Forces, Iraqi security forces, including the Kurdish Peshmerga - and more than 80 members of the global coalition to keep pressuring on ISIS to protect our homeland,” he said when speaking about the US overnight operation that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in Idlib, northwest Syria. The global coalition against ISIS was formally established in October 2014, after ISIS took control of vast swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria. Consisting of 84 nations, the US-led Coalition’s mission has been “degrading and ensuring Daesh’s enduring defeat,” it says on its website, using Arabic acronym for the extremist group. The US has provided Peshmerga forces with weapons, salaries and training, and supported them in anti-ISIS military operations. The combat mission of the Coalition ended in Iraq at the end of the last year but it continues in Syria. The Coalition continues advising Iraqi forces and Peshmerga.
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