‘Secured the oil’: US troops stay behind to guard oilfields
SYRIA - The United States is weighing whether to retain a military presence near oilfields in northeastern Syria in order to prevent the sites falling under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) armed group.
US defence chief Mark Esper’s comments on Monday came as American troops crossed into Iraq as part of a withdrawal from northeastern Syria ordered by President Donald Trump, a decision that cleared the way for Turkey to launch a crossborder offensive on October 9 against Kurdish fighters in the region.
The Reuters news agency reported more than 100 vehicles crossed the border into Iraq early on Monday from the northeast tip of Syria, where Turkey agreed to pause its offensive for five days under a ceasefire deal with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) brokered by Washington. Speaking to reporters during a trip to Afghanistan, Esper said while the US withdrawal was under way, some troops were still with partner SDF fighters Washington’s main ground allies in the fight against ISIL near oilfields and there had been discussions about keeping forces there.
Esper said that was just one option and no decision had been made “with regard to numbers or anything like that”. The Pentagon’s job was to look at different options, he added. “We presently have troops in a couple of cities that [are] located right near that area,” Esper said. “The purpose is to deny access, specifically revenue to ISIS and any other groups that may want to seek that revenue to enable their own malign activities.” Trump later told a cabinet meeting in Washington, DC, a “small number” of troops who remained were located in the southeast of the country, while a separate group staying behind had “secured the oil”.
(Al Jazeera)