SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
US troop level in Syria stable despite announced withdrawal
Washington, Nov 4 (AFP) Nov 04, 2019
The number of US troops in Syria remains roughly stable at just under 1,000 three weeks after President Donald Trump announced their withdrawal, a US official said Monday.

The withdrawal of American troops from Syria's northern border opened the way for Turkey's military incursion against Kurdish forces in the country.

Trump's decision to protect oil fields in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor led the Pentagon to send reinforcements to that area while US troops move away from areas close to the Syrian border with Turkey, the US official said on condition of anonymity.

Reinforcements have started to arrive in Deir Ezzor, while some troops have been sent to the north to help secure the withdrawal from that area and others have moved from Syria to northern Iraq.

But overall, the number of American troops in Syria is similar to that before the announcement of the withdrawal in mid-October.

"We remain below 1,000 and the withdrawal continues," the official said.

The withdrawal has not been entirely free of hitches, with Turkish artillery shells falling close to a US patrol Sunday near the "safe zone" that Turkey has set up in northern Syria near the border.

Shells fell within a kilometer (0.6 miles) of the road the patrol was on but the patrol was not hit, the US Central Command said.

The US official said the shells did not target the Americans.

The legality of the US operation to guard the oil fields remains a subject of debate even within the Pentagon.

In private, some officials express doubt about the possibility of denying the Syrian government access to the fields if Kurdish fighters, who now control the area with the Americans, reach a deal with President Bashar al-Assad to share the profits from the oil.

Asked Friday about the US mission to protect Syria's oil fields, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the goal was to deny access to them to the Islamic State group "and other actors in the region."

He did not specify what actors they were. No one at the Pentagon would say Monday if the Syrian regime and Russia were among these actors.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
EU clears European satellite giant SES bid for US rival Intelsat
Aethero Secures $8.4M to Build the Next Generation of Space-Based Computing and Autonomous Spacecraft
Axiom-4 mission launch scrubbed as SpaceX detects leak in Falcon 9 rocket

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Scientists develop electronic skin to give robots the feeling of human touch
Nairobi startup's bid to be 'operating system for global South'
Russia to build Kazakhstan's first nuclear power plant

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Hegseth defends $961.6B Defense Department budget request
Iran's nuclear programme, Netanyahu's age-old obsession
Israel, Iran resume missile exchange, threaten more attacks

24/7 News Coverage
Nations advance ocean protection, vow to defend seabed
Greenland ice melted much faster than average in May heatwave: scientists
Value oceans, don't plunder them, French Polynesia leader tells AFP



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.