we're aware. there's also the possibility that there could be an attack by islamic state, which has become more active in the region — and quite surprisingly, it was able to launch an attack on iran back injanuary this year. the point is that the us forces in northern syria are there with, really, two missions. one is to keep the islamic state under control, but the other one is also to disrupt iranian supplies of weapons going across the border into syria, and from syria into lebanon, to hezbollah. so they've got a dual mission there. there are about 900 of them. but they're not very well protected. and they are quite open to attacks from groups that are hostile to them. and in northern syria,