U.S. troops to protect oil fields in Syria
BRUSSELS — The United States will send armored vehicles and combat troops into eastern Syria to keep oil fields from potentially falling into the hands of Islamic State militants, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday.
It was the latest sign that extracting the military from Syria is more uncertain and complicated than President Trump is making it out to be. Though Trump repeatedly says he is pulling out of Syria, the reality on the ground is different.
Adding armored reinforcements in the oilproducing area of Syria could mean sending several hundred U.S. troops — even as a similar number are being withdrawn from a separate mission closer to the border with Turkey where Russian forces have been filling the vacuum.
Esper described the added force as “mechanized,” which means it likely will include armored vehicles such as Bradleyarmored infantry carriers and possibly tanks, although details were still being worked out. This reinforcement would introduce a new dimension to the U.S. military presence, which largely has comprised special operations forces not equipped with tanks or other armored vehicles.
Esper spoke at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Sending an armored force to eastern Syria would partially reverse the ongoing shrinkage of the U.S. troop presence in Syria. Trump has ordered the withdrawal of nearly all 1,000 U.S. troops who had been partnering with a Syrian Kurdishled militia against the Islamic State. That withdrawal is proceeding even as Esper announced the plan to put reinforcements in the oilproducing area.
Speaking to reporters Friday at the White
House, Trump said the U.S.brokered agreement with Turkey to halt its offensive against U.S.supported Syrian Kurdish fighters was a win for his administration. That offensive began after Trump announced U.S. troops would not stand in the way, though he also said the U.S. would punish Turkey’s economy if it acted inhumanely.
He also said anew on Friday that “we’re getting our troops out” of Syria, without mentioning Esper’s announcement.
“We are doing well in Syria, with Turkey and everybody else that we’re dealing with,” Trump said. “We have secured the oil. … We have a couple of people that came knocking, we said don’t knock.”
White House officials would not clarify whom he was referring to as “knocking.”