US troops to guard oil fields
BRUSSELS— Pentagon chief Mark Esper said Friday that the United States will leave more American troops and armored vehicles in eastern Syria to help prevent Islamic State militants from gaining access to oil fields controlled by U.S .- allied Syrian Kurds. That deployment will likely include tanks, a U.S. official said.
The defense secretary confirmed that the U.S. will send in an armored force to the region, but he did not provide details or the number of troops.
His comments at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels reflected one more change in what has been a rapidly shifting U.S. stance on American forces in Syria.
Just last week, President Donald Trump insisted that all 1,000 American forces in Syria would leave the war-torn country. Then he acknowledged that a couple hundred would stay at the Al-Tanf garrison in the south.
In tweets Friday,
Trump said“Oil is secured. Our soldiers have left and are leaving Syria for other places, then .... COMING HOME! ... When these pundit fools who have called the Middle East wrong for 20 years ask what we are getting out of the deal, I simply say, THE OIL, AND WE ARE BRINGING OUR SOLDIERS BACK HOME, ISIS SECURED!”
Esper, when asked about America's shifting Syria strategy, said the U.S. mission has always been to prevent the resurgence of IS. “That mission remains unchanged,” he said.
But Es per said at NATO that the U.S. is “considering how we might reposition forces in the area in order to ensure we secure the oil field.” He added: “We are reinforcing that position. It will include some mechanized forces.”
The U.S. official who send the deployment probably would include tanks offered no more details. This official was not authorized to discuss internal discussions about military planning and spoke on condition of anonymity.