U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Saturday that all of the nearly 1,000 ...
ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT - U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Saturday that all of the nearly 1,000 troops withdrawing from northern Syria are expected to move to western Iraq to continue the campaign against Islamic State militants and “to help defend Iraq.”
The truce also aimed to ease a crisis triggered by President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision earlier this month to withdraw all 1,000 U.S. troops from northern Syria, a move criticized in Washington and elsewhere as a betrayal of loyal Kurdish allies who had fought for years alongside U.S. troops against Islamic State.
He said the mission for those troops would be to “help defend Iraq” and carry out a counter-Islamic State mission.Any decision to send additional U.S. troops to Iraq is likely to be heavily scrutinized in a country where Iran has been steadily amassing influence. The additional U.S. troops would add to the more than 5,000 American troops already based in the country, training Iraqi forces and helping to ensure that Islamic State militants do not resurge.
Iran’s role in responding to the demonstrations has been another reminder of Tehran’s reach in Iraq, where a sizable number of former militia commanders are now members of parliament and support the Iranian agenda.President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey would press on with its offensive into northeastern Syria and “crush the heads of terrorists” if a deal with Washington on the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from the area was not fully implemented.
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