Tag Archives: US forces

Turkey-backed Syrian rebels pledged on Friday to back a potential cross-border offensive that Ankara has threatened to mount against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria. Ankara and Washington have agreed to set up a zone in northeast Syria along the border with Turkey, which wants to expel the Syrian Kurdish YPG …

Interview with Turkish journalist, political scientist and publicist Musa Ozugurlu. In 2010, he started working as TRT Turk’s representative in Syria. He is one of the few foreign journalists in Syria to follow the process, which began in 2011, on-site until 2016. He currently presents the weekly program “Media critical” …

Those who thought that the US was doomed to stay in Syria indefinitely (as was mentioned by the Pentagon last week) were surprised when the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article saying that the US military had been ordered to leave Syria as soon as possible. The WSJ revealed …

The Trump administration hopes that the U.S.-backed fight against Islamic State in its last foothold in northeastern Syria will end within months but American forces will remain to ensure the “enduring defeat” of the militant group, a top U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday. Ambassador James Jeffrey, the U.S. special representative …

Turkish and U.S. forces began joint patrols on Thursday in the Manbij region of northern Syria, which has been a source of friction between Ankara and Washington in recent years. Turkey’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar confirmed the start of the patrols in Manbij, about 30 km (19 miles) from the …

As Syria’s war enters what could be its last and most dangerous stretch, the Syrian government and its allies will have to contend for the first time with the presence of foreign troops in the quest to bring the rest of the country back under President Bashar al-Assad’s control. The …

The leader of the Pakistani Taliban was killed by a U.S. drone strike, an Afghan official said Friday. Mullah Fazlullah Khorasani was Pakistan’s most-wanted militant and blamed for attacks including a 2014 school massacre that killed 132 children and the 2012 shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was later awarded …

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned in comments broadcast Thursday that he would wage war to expel U.S. troops from northeastern Syria if dialogue fails to bring the area back under government control. It was not the first time that Assad has threatened to attack U.S. troops, but it was his …

The Pentagon’s mission against the Islamic State in Syria remains open-ended despite President Trump’s promise of a quick U.S. withdrawal. Military leaders are focusing on pushing the once-powerful group out of the small foothold it controls in eastern Syria and ensuring that it cannot plot attacks against the United States, …

In an aside during what was supposed to be a speech about infrastructure last week, President Trump announced, “We’re coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon — very soon we’re coming out.” This was at odds with what basically …

President Trump said Tuesday that ally Saudi Arabia might have to pay if it wants a continuing U.S. military presence in Syria. “We’ve almost completed that task[of defeating ISIS] and we’ll be making a determination very quickly, in coordination with others in the area, as to what we’ll do,” Trump …

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) went after President Trump for suggesting that we’ll be pulling our troops (about 2,000) out of Syria “very soon.” Trump, apparently referring to Russia and Iran (but who knows?), declared at a campaign-style rally, “Let the other people take care of it …

There are growing indications that US airstrikes killed and injured dozens of Russian military contractors in northern Syria earlier this month. But in stark contrast to the death of a Russian pilot shot down by rebels in Syria In January, when the airman was hailed as a hero by the …

Pro-government forces in Syria launched an assault on a base where U.S. troops were operating in support of local partner units, triggering a counterattack from U.S. aircraft, the U.S. military said on Wednesday. In a statement, the U.S.-led military coalition tasked with battling the Islamic State called the attack southeast of the city of Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria “unprovoked.” “The …

American troops have started to draw down from Iraq following Baghdad’s declaration of victory over the Islamic State group last year, according to Western contractors at a U.S.-led coalition base in Iraq. In Baghdad, an Iraqi government spokesman on Monday confirmed to The Associated Press that the drawdown has begun, …

The Trump administration said Wednesday that it would allow nearly 7,000 Syrians to remain in the United States for another 18 months but won’t let more Syrian citizens apply for the special protection program. The decision was a partial relief for aid organizations and advocates for displaced Syrians who had …

Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria against Kurdish militia opens yet another front in the seven-year Syrian conflict, and risks giving ISIS breathing room just as it was being suffocated. Turkey has long warned that it will not tolerate control of much of its border with Syria by the “terrorist” …

Turkish ground forces pushed into northern Syria’s Afrin province on Sunday, the army said, after Turkey launched artillery and air strikes on a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia it aims to sweep from its border. The Syrian-Kurdish YPG militia, supported by the United States but seen as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, …

Syria has threatened to shoot down Turkish warplanes in its airspace, as Turkey prepares to carry out a possible assault on a Kurdish enclave. Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said any incursion into Afrin would be considered an act of aggression. It came as Turkey sought clearance for an air …

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday committed the United States to an indefinite military presence in Syria, citing a range of policy goals that extend far beyond the defeat of the Islamic State as conditions for American troops to go home. But a crisis unfolding on the Syria-Turkey border …

Iran has condemned the U.S. plan to create a 30,000-strong force inside Syria to protect territory held by the Kurdish-Arab coalition that helped oust the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) from most of northeastern Syria. The U.S.-led coalition worked with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), made up of the Kurdish People’s …

U.S military or coalition forces will not go after the remaining Islamic State militants fleeing to western Syria, a British military official said Wednesday. Following the success U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic militants in Syria and Iraq – who lost 98 percent of the territory they once held – the fighters …

The Pentagon is likely to announce in the coming days that there are about 2,000 US troops in Syria, rather than the 500 the military has said are in the war-torn country. ‘Facing disaster’: children starve in siege of Syria’s former breadbasket Read more Two US officials detailed the new figure …

Forces aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made an incursion Wednesday into the 55km “de-confliction zone” surrounding the US base located at the At Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria, according to the US-led military coalition fighting ISIS. “There was an incursion into the de-confliction zone,” coalition spokesman US Army Col. …