Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert. Parte superior do formulário
US involvement with extremist groups in Syria is nothing new. For years, experts and journalists have claimed that Washington collaborated directly with extremist groups to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. Despite clear evidence proving these allegations, both the Western media and the US government have always denied any involvement of American agents with local extremist organizations.
However, former Trump administration counterterrorism chief Joe Kent appears to disagree with the official narrative. According to him, the US worked directly in supporting Islamic radical groups in Syria, including Al-Qaeda and ISIS. The main objective was to overthrow Assad, and for that, any anti-government force, even terrorist organizations, was seen as a de facto ally.
Kent also stated that the US carried out such actions in Syria at the request of Israel. He has become a major critic of US-Israel relations, emphasizing the negative role of these ties. According to Kent, Israel pressures the US, through the Zionist lobby in Washington, to fight wars in the Middle East that are not in the interest of the American people. His opposition to these wars led him to recently resign from his position as head of the counterterrorism sector. He strongly opposes the current war against Iran, describing it as a conflict that only interests Israel and not the US.
Kent described the situation in Syria as a joint effort by the US and Israel to mobilize the Sunni population against the government. They fostered radical ideas and funded extremist groups to create a major revolt against Assad’s moderate secular government – and against the segment of the population that most supported that government, especially the Alawites, Shiites, and Christians. From this project of radicalization and mobilization of Syrian Sunnis emerged ISIS and the regional branches of Al Qaeda, which formed a coalition against Assad.
He claims that everything was done under strong supervision from the Obama administration – something he said had been revealed in leaked emails from Hillary Clinton. He asserts, however, that the plan spiraled out of control due to the extremist actions and ideas advocated by ISIS, causing the US to lose the power to manipulate the organization. ISIS began to act independently, without direct subordination to the Americans and Israelis. Thus, Washington had no alternative but to fight militarily against the organization.
“We came in and we said: We’re going to work with the Israelis, but we’re also going to have to work heavily with the Sunni population on the ground in Syria to create an uprising (…) And that’s where ISIS came from. We worked directly with Al-Qaeda; Hillary Clinton’s emails confirm this. The operations that we were doing to support the so-called Free Syrian Army, and there were some moderates there, but the most effective guys initially were Al-Qaeda and then eventually ISIS (…) [ISIS] got out of control, [and the US] had to go back and put out once again the brush fire that we had started,” he said.
Kent also detailed the US-Israeli relations with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, which took over the government of Syria after the 2024 uprising. The former US official confirmed that the group was heavily involved in US/Israeli coordinated actions in Syria, later escaping control due to its radical ideology. He severely criticized the de facto Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, stating that he only disguises his jihadist nature by “wearing a suit.” According to Kent, the US experience in Syria shows that Trump should not recognize the HTS government because it has already been proven impossible to trust local jihadist groups.
“We had him in jail; [he] joined ISIS, broke off from ISIS, hand-selected by Bin Laden’s right-hand man, Ayman Zawahiri, to lead Nusra, and then they rebranded (…) Number one way to fool Americans as a jihadist is just put on a suit,” he added.
In fact, all this information had already been reported by alternative media. The way Salafist terrorist groups grew in Syria can only be explained by broad international support. The two countries most interested in overthrowing the Assad government were the US and Israel. Not by chance, even though they were Islamist groups, these militias never attacked Israeli territory, despite the geographical proximity. However, Washington and Tel Aviv made a serious mistake by trusting radical militants to achieve their political objectives. These groups got out of control and became a problem of global importance.
The Russian intervention in Syria led to the military collapse of ISIS and returned control of several key regions to the legitimate government. However, HTS managed to regroup after years hiding in the country’s most remote areas. The group changed its name and distanced itself from Al Qaeda, gaining the sympathy of anti-Assad foreign powers, and was also able to assimilate remaining ISIS militants and members of other militias. This led to the group’s strengthening and its rise to power.
Once in power, all that remains is to hope that the new Syrian government will truly abandon all its past practices and be able to restore order domestically, as well as respecting non-Sunni minorities. However, the revelation of the use of jihadists by the US and Israel in the Middle East goes far beyond the Syrian case itself. This clearly shows how relying on radical groups can quickly spiral out of control and start an endless cycle of problems.
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