More than a dozen senior officals said the lack of guidance amid leadership turnover in the White House is harmful to the U.S.-led fight against ISIS.
"We're on the two-yard line. We could literally fall into the end zone. We're that close to total victory, to wiping out the ISIS caliphate in Syria … we're that close and we're coming apart," one commander of U.S. special forces told NBC News on Friday.
NBC News agreed not to reveal the officials' identities because they were not authorized to publicly discuss U.S. policies in Syria, the report said.
"We send memos. We tell them (the White House) what is going on. I'm not sure they're listening, or if they even know what we're doing out here … I don't think anyone is home right now," another commander told NBC.
The U.S. has experimented with a number of different policies, but military officials praised working with the Kurds.
"I'm very impressed. These people stood up without any international support. I was inspired and I was impressed," said Gen. Jonathan Braga, the operations director for Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the official title of the U.S. fight against ISIS, NBC reported.
However, the leaders of the Kurdish forces have critiqued the U.S. for not coming to the Kurds' aid against Turkish forces.
"We have been abandoned and betrayed. We were useful to fight against ISIS, but the Americans are now turning their backs on us," said Mohammed Mustafa Ali, a commander of a Kurdish-led force, NBC reported.
The top U.S. commanders in northern Syria told NBC that the recent departures of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, are damaging the battle against ISIS.
Four years ago, ISIS swept over Syria and Iraq, capturing territory containing about 8 million people. With significant U.S. help, local forces drove ISIS out of Iraq.
If ISIS takes back territory that it has lost, "the world will pay a price," Braga said told NBC.
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