US focus in Syria moves to oil fields
Pivoting from the dramatic killing of the Islamic State’s leader, the Pentagon is increasing US efforts to protect Syria’s oil fields from the extremist group as well as from Syria itself and the country’s Russian allies. It’s a new high-stakes mission even as American troops are withdrawn from other parts of the country.
Defence Secretary Mark Esper says the military’s oil field mission also will ensure income for Syrian Kurds who are counted on by Washington to continue guarding Islamic State prisoners and helping American forces combat remnants of the group — even as President Donald Trump continues to insist all US troops will come home.
‘‘We don’t want to be a policeman in this case,’’ Trump said yesterday, referring to America’s role after Turkey’s incursion in Syria. In the face of Turkey’s early October warning that it would invade and create a ‘‘safe zone’’ on the Syrian side of its border, Trump ordered US forces to step aside, effectively abandoning a Kurdish militia that had partnered with US troops.
Esper and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at a Pentagon news conference to cheer the successful mission by U.S. special operations forces Saturday that ended with IS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi blowing himself up. Esper called al-Baghdadi’s death a ‘‘devastating blow’’ to an organisation that already had lost its hold on a wide swath of territory in Syria and Iraq.
Milley said the US had disposed of alBaghdadi’s remains ‘‘appropriately’’ and in line with the laws of armed conflict. He also said US forces retrieved unspecified intelligence information from the site, which he described as a place in northwestern Syria where the IS leader had been ‘‘staying on a consistent basis.’’
A US military dog that was slightly injured in the raid has recovered and is back at work, Milley said.
Esper hinted at uncertainty ahead in Syria , even though the Islamic State has lost its inspirational leader, with the Syrian government exploiting support from Russia and Iran.
‘‘The security situation in remains complex,’’ Esper said.
A big part of that complexity is the rejiggering of the battlefield since Trump earlier this month ordered a full US troop withdrawal from positions along the Turkish border in northeastern Syria. Even as those troops leave, other US forces are heading to the oilproducing region of eastern Syria, east of the Euphrates River.
Syria
Trump recently has proposed hiring an American oil company to begin repairing Syria’s oil infrastructure, which has been devastated by years of war. Repeated US airstrikes against facilities for oil storage, transport, processing and refining starting in 2015 inflicted heavy damage.
Esper said last week that a ‘‘mechanised’’ force would reinforce US positions in the oil region, meaning a force equipped with tanks or Bradley infancy carriers. Yesterday he provided no details about the makeup of the force.
He referred to ‘‘multiple state and nonstate’’ forces vying for control of Syrian territory and resources, including the oil. He said that while the main US military mission is to ensure the ‘‘enduring defeat’’ of the Islamic State, that now will include denying oil income for the group.