US troops in Syria going to Iraq, not home

China Daily | Updated: 2019-10-22 07:31

DOHUK, Iraq - US troops began crossing into Iraq from Syria on Monday as an outline of the Pentagon's strategy for the region emerged.

Reuters video images showed armored vehicles carrying troops into Iraq, part of the United States' announced withdrawal from Syria. In another departure from Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, said on Sunday that they had withdrawn from a border town under a US-brokered ceasefire deal with Turkey.

Of the US troop movements, an Iraqi Kurdish security source confirmed the crossing into the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

The troops stationed in northern Syria are not coming home and the US is not leaving the Middle East, according to plans outlined by US Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

The fight in Syria against the Islamic State group, once spearheaded by the US-allied Syrian Kurds that have been cast aside by US President Donald Trump, will be undertaken by US forces, possibly from Iraq, according to the plan.

Esper did not rule out that US forces would conduct counterterrorism missions from Iraq into Syria. But he told reporters that those details will be worked out over time.

His comments were the first to specifically lay out where US troops will go as they shift from Syria and what the counter-IS fight could look like. Esper said he has spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to shift about 1,000 troops from Syria into western Iraq.

Trump, who insists he is bringing home US troops from "endless wars" in this area, tweeted: "USA soldiers are not in combat or ceasefire zones. We have secured the Oil. Bringing soldiers home!"

Turkey paused the offensive on Thursday night for five days under a deal agreed between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US Vice-President Mike Pence. Erdogan has warned that Turkey will resume the assault when the deadline expires on Tuesday if the SDF has not pulled back from a planned "safe zone".

"We don't have any more fighters in the city," SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel said, referring to the border town of Ras al-Ain. It is one of two towns on the Turkish-Syrian border that have been the main targets of Turkey's offensive to push back Kurdish fighters.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan may continue their direct talks on Turkey's military operation in Syria, which are scheduled for Oct 22 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Peskov denied speculation that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would join the Russian and Turkish leaders for talks.

Liu Xuan in Beijing, Ren Qi in Russia, AP and Reuters contributed to this story.