Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed on 18 April that Washington is moving forward with plans to “consolidate” its military presence in Syria by reducing the number of US troops in the country to fewer than 1,000 in the coming months.
“Recognizing the success the United States has had against ISIS, including its 2019 territorial defeat under President Trump, today the Secretary of Defense directed the consolidation of US forces in Syria under Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve to select locations in Syria,” Parnell said in a statement, adding that US forces would undergo a “consolidation” to locations in the country.
Although Parnell's statement did not provide a specific timeline for the withdrawal, it highlighted plans to “bring the US footprint in Syria down to less than 1,000 forces in the coming months.”
The Pentagon release came one day after the New York Times (NYT) reported that the US army shuttered “three of its eight small operating bases” in Syria's Conoco and Al-Omar oil fields, which the US has occupied since 2017, revealing that about 600 US troops left the oil fields.
Nevertheless, local sources told the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) that much of the equipment removed from the US occupation bases was transferred to their base in the Al-Shaddadi area of southern Hasakah.The US illegally deployed troops in Syria in November 2015 to allegedly “prevent the return” of ISIS. This happened two months after Russia accepted the request of Damascus to provide air support to the Syrian army, Iranian special forces, and Hezbollah in their fight against ISIS forces who threatened to overrun the Syrian capital.
In the chaos that ensued, Washington and its Kurdish proxy seized control of Syria's resource-rich northeast, where the US army regularly looted Syria's vital resources.
1 comment:
Amazing, the truth about illegal entry of troupes and stealing resources, keeping the local people poor.
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