Syria’s ISIS-Aligned Government May Join the U.S.-Led Coalition Against ISIS – Kurds Skeptical
The war against ISIS. Photo courtesy of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa — widely known by his former jihadist alias, Abu Mohammed al-Julani — is set to visit Washington on November 10, 2025, to formally sign an accord for Syria to join the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. The visit will mark the first time a Syrian head of state has ever been received at the White House, a move that has stunned both regional observers and U.S. allies, given al-Sharaa’s long ties to extremist organizations.
“The U.S. once had a five-million-dollar bounty on al-Julani’s head,” said Charbel, a Syrian Christian who fought ISIS alongside the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). “And now he’s invited to the White House? How can this be?”
Al-Sharaa rose to power in late 2024 after leading a coalition of Islamist groups that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime. A decade earlier, he was designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and his faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), remained on the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations until July 2025.
For many Kurds and Christians in northern Syria’s autonomous region of Rojava, Washington’s outreach to al-Julani feels like another betrayal. “Yes, he wants to join the coalition because of American pressure,” said a Kurdish woman in Qamishli, “but how can he fight ISIS when his own men were once part of it?”
A veteran who fought ISIS in both Iraq and Syria echoed the disbelief: “Julani joining a coalition to fight ISIS? That’s absurd. He is ISIS.”
Charbel shared similar fears: “This government isn’t safe for anyone. It’s made up of jihadists pretending to be politicians. No one can live under them.”
Reports from across western Syria suggest those fears are well-founded. In March 2025, more than 800 civilians — mostly from the Alawite minority — were massacred in Latakia, Tartus, and Hama by militias aligned with the new government. Weeks later, hundreds of Druze civilians were slaughtered in similar sectarian attacks. The perpetrators often operated under the Syrian National Army banner, though distinctions between government troops, ISIS remnants, and Islamist militias have largely vanished.
Rojava, still protected by the SDF and U.S. troops, remains relatively stable, but ISIS-linked violence is rising, especially in Deir ez-Zor and the Raqqa countryside. Though ISIS no longer holds territory, an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 fighters remain active across Iraq and Syria, conducting assassinations, ambushes, and bombings targeting both civilians and security forces.
Over 8,000 ISIS detainees and some 38,000 family members remain crammed into camps like al-Hol and Roj, where radicalization continues to spread unchecked. In 2025, ISIS carried out 117 attacks in northeastern Syria — already exceeding last year’s total — as U.S. troop numbers declined from 2,000 to about 700.
Major incidents this year included a suicide bombing at a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus that killed 25 worshippers, an IED explosion in Sweida’s al-Safa desert that claimed seven Syrian soldiers, and an axe attack during Babylonian-Assyrian New Year celebrations in Duhok, Iraq.
Digitally, ISIS continues to recruit and radicalize youth through encrypted channels, often using cryptocurrencies to fund global operations and evade detection. Teenagers as young as 14 have been arrested across Europe for ISIS-inspired plots.
Globally, ISIS has evolved into a decentralized insurgency, with its affiliates expanding across Africa, Central Asia, and Afghanistan. Its Sahel branch now commands up to 3,000 fighters across Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, while ISIS-Khorasan remains one of the world’s deadliest offshoots.
As the U.S. and Europe reduce counterterrorism funding and shift focus to strategic competition with China and Russia, jihadist movements are exploiting the resulting power vacuums. Analysts warn that failing to sustain counterterror efforts risks paving the way for ISIS’s resurgence.
The upcoming White House visit by al-Julani — now rebranded as President Ahmed al-Sharaa — has thus left many Syrians and regional observers questioning how Washington can justify welcoming a man whose movement once embodied the terrorism the Global Coalition was built to destroy.
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