US forces, accompanied by Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters, drive their armoured vehicles near the northern Syrian village of Darbasiyah, on the border with Turkey on April 28, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / DELIL SOULEIMAN
The U.S. will not deploy any additional troops in northeastern Syria, despite the recent “peace corridor” agreement with Turkey, a top U.S. general stated, according to the CNN.
According to the news channel, the new missions that would result from the agreement with Turkey will be carried out by U.S. troops already in the country.
“We’re not going to increase our footprint on the ground to conduct these patrols because as we see it right now, this is directly linked to our defeat Daesh [ISIS] mission,” Brig. Gen. Scott Naumann, the director of operations for the U.S.-led coalition told reporters on a conference call on September 19.
Naumann went on to reveal that around 1,000 U.S. service members are currently deployed in Syria to “defeat Daesh and security mechanism zone missions.”
The “peace corridor” agreement, which was reached last month, is supposed to address Ankara’s security concerns in northeastern Syria, where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is in control.
Last week, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon will deploy 150 additional troops in northeastern Syria in order to facilitate the agreement. However, this information was apparently inaccurate.
