Kurds pelt US troops as they exit Syria
Some will remain in eastern Turkey to protect oil fields
Angry over the US withdrawal from Syria, residents of a Kurdish-dominated city pelted departing American military vehicles with potatoes yesterday as they drove through.
Defence Secretary Mark Esper said that US troops will stay in eastern Turkey to protect Kurdish-held oil fields for at least the coming weeks and that he was discussing options to keep them there.
A video by the Kurdish news agency showed a convoy of armored vehicles driving through the northeastern city of Qamishli.
Potatoes thrown
People in the street hurled potatoes at the vehicles, shouting, “No America,” and “America liar,” in English. “Like rats, America is running away,” one man shouted in Arabic.
The scene encapsulated the
Kurds’ feelings of betrayal and added a new indignity to an American withdrawal.
The Kurds were stunned when President Donald Trump two weeks ago abruptly decided to pull US troops out of border areas, abandoning their allied Kurdish-backed fighters ahead of Turkey’s invasion.
At another location, near the town of Tal Tamr, one man blocked the way of a US van with a poster reading: “Thanks for US people, but Trump betrayed us.”
Abandoned allies
The Kurdish-led force were the US’s ally in the long and bloody fight that eventually brought down Daesh’s rule over northeast and eastern Syria.
Abandoned by US forces, the Kurds agreed to a ceasefire deal brokered by Washington that requires them to leave a section of the border, handing it over to Turkish-backed forces.