Green Berets conduct a medical evacuation exercise during a patrol within the 55km deconfliction zone in Syria, May 27, 2020. Coalition Forces in Syria regularly train on various tactics and procedures to enhance readiness in an enduring effort to defeat of Daesh. Photo altered for security reasons. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. William Howard)
The forces of the Islamist-led Syrian Transitional Government took control of the strategic al-Tanf garrison located at the junction of the Iraqi and Jordanian borders after the United States withdrew from there, Anadolu Agency reported on February 12, citing Syrian officials.
According to the Turkish state-run news agency, U.S. troops withdrew to a base known as Tower 22, which sits near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria and is located 22 kilometers from al-Tanf.
The withdrawal was first reported a day earlier by both AFP and Reuters, but neither the Syrian government or the U.S. Central Command has yet issued any statements on the development.
The garrison was established by the U.S.-led International Coalition all the way back in 2016 amid the height of the war on ISIS. It blocked a strategic highway that links Damascus with the Iraqi capital, Bahgadad. The coalition also maintained a 55-kilometer no-fly zone around the garrison.
Around 200 U.S. troops were deployed there, along with hundreds of militants from a proxy group known as the Syrian Free Army, which was integrated into the new Syrian military after the fall of the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad more than a year ago.
The Syrian government agreed to join the anti-ISIS coalition when President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House last November.
Following the withdrawal from al-Tanf and the government’s recent advances against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria, U.S. troops are mainly now based at the Qasrak base in Hasakeh, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based in the United Kingdom.
Recent reports suggested that the U.S. is planning to pull all of its troops, around 1,000, out of the country before the end of the year.
With the U.S. withdrawal from al-Tanf, the Syrian government will be able to reactivate the nearby border crossing with Iraq, and along with it the Damascus-Bahgdad highway. The government will also be able to exert more pressure on Druze forces in al-Suwayda, in the southeast of the country.
While the U.S. decision to withdraw forces from Syria is often linked to improved ties with the government there, tensions with Iran may be the real reason.
All U.S. bases in the country are small, isolated and poorly-protected. There are no capable air defenses deployed there, which means that if the U.S. moves in with its plans to attack the Islamic Republic these bases will be a very easy target for Iranian missiles and drones.
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basshar is busy with russian girls.
expected from inferior species feminized coward americunts
if russia had done the right thing that illegal base would have been taken off the map wjen the war was going on, just one more catastrophic mistake they made at the time, another mistake was allowing thousands of head chopping apes to leave aleppo for idlib instead of killing them, then they failed to blow them to hell when they drove from aleppo to damascus to take over for their israeli handlers.