IRAQ LOOKS AT SENDING FORCE INTO SYRIA AFTER US PULLOUT

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi denies the US had requested that Baghdad cross the border

Iraq could send troops into neighbouring Syria, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said days after the US announced it would withdraw from the wartorn country.

Iraq was “considering all its options” to defend itself from threats across its borders, the premier said.

Baghdad has already reinforced its border with Syria to defend against remaining ISIS pockets in the Euphrates River valley.

Iraq remains concerned that ISIS could expand its footprint in the war zone, Mr Abdul Mahdi said. He expressed concerns that a new wave of Syrian refugees was moving into Iraq.

Last week, US President Donald Trump announced a total withdrawal of US troops from Syria, declaring that Washington had succeeded in defeating ISIS and its soldiers were no longer needed.

The announcement drew criticism from allies such as France and Britain, who say the insurgents have not been completely beaten.

Despite the American withdrawal, the US remains committed to fighting ISIS in Iraq and other areas, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Mr Abdul Madhi in a call on Saturday.

Mr Abdul Mahdi said his government had not received a US request to move troops inside Syria but the possibility was “circulating”.

“Iraq will make its decisions in consultation with its friends and neighbours,” he said.

Baghdad does not have formal military forces inside Syria but Iranian-funded and trained militias, part of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, are fighting along the Syrian border.

Those troops are now part of Iraq’s national security apparatus but have autonomy in their operations.

The influx of Iranian-backed paramilitaries into Syria from Iraq would bolster the Syrian government’s combat power as it moves to drive ISIS militants out of their last toehold.

Syrian troops on Saturday sent reinforcements to the eastern province of Deir Ezzor,

close to an enclave controlled by ISIS, and along the front with US-backed Kurdish-led fighters.

The government sent thousands of its elite forces to the western banks of the Euphrates River, mostly in the towns of Mayadeen and Boukamal. The troops sent to the area include members of the Tiger Force, an elite unit that defeated rebels and ISIS militants on several fronts over the past two years.

Analysts fear that the US withdrawal could leave the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting ISIS alone and exposed to military action by Turkey, which says the group is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

Kurdish forces in Syria are in talks with Russia, which is widely seen as the only nation in Syria capable of protecting the SDF from a Turkish assault.

SDF officials warned they would divert forces from the battle against ISIS to defend against Turkey, which is amassing forces along its border.

Turkey said yesterday that it was working with the US to co-ordinate the withdrawal of American forces but remained determined to clear US-allied Kurdish fighters from north-eastern Syria.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that “if Turkey says it will enter, it will”.

In Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that a delegation was heading to Moscow and that he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, the SDF made new gains against ISIS in their eastern Syrian stronghold on Monday, forcing hundreds of people to flee, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

SDF fighters are closing in on the villages of Al Shaafa and Sousa, where a few hundred SIS fighters are defending their last pocket in the Euphrates River valley. That is what is left of the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate.

“The latest developments are in favour of the SDF and it appears that ISIS may collapse soon,” said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the monitor in Britain.

An SDF spokesman, Kino Gabriel, said the Kurdish-Arab alliance had repelled several ISIS counter-attacks and was now advancing from three directions.

An SDF statement on Sunday said it had moved 1,000 civilians away from the fighting.

More than 5,000 civilians have fled their homes since December 14 when the SDF retook Hajin, which had been the largest ISIS-held town along the Euphrates River valley, the Observatory said. The recapture of Al Shaafa and Sousa will cap a four-year multinational effort to smash the sprawling “state” ISIS declared over parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014.