U.S. Asks Allies to Send Hundreds of Troops to Syria
WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- Senior United States lawmakers and military officials have urged the country's allies to send hundreds of troops into Syria, as the U.S. plans its withdrawal from the war-torn country, a top U.S. official said.
Speaking on a panel at the Munich Security Conference, Senator Lindsey Graham said the U.S. would consider keeping some troops in Syria if Washington's allies agreed to deploy their own forces to help create a buffer zone near the Turkish border with Syria.
Graham said he discussed the plan ahead of the conference with U.S. General Joseph Votel and President Donald Trump, who announced in December that the U.S. planned to pull about 2,000 American troops out of Syria.
Votel, who is the top general leading U.S. occupation in Syria, has been vocal in his opposition to the withdrawal of American forces.
"I'm hoping that President Trump will be coming to some of you and asking for your help and you will say yes. And in return, the capability that we have that is unique to the United States will still be in the fight in Syria," said Graham, before calling on international officials in the room to send their own troops.
This is the only play the United States has left to maintain some influence and presence in northeastern Syria, the Washington Post wrote.
Graham also said the U.S. would try to gain support for the plan at the conference.
Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan did not secure any solid pledges of support, however, as he met with 13 defense ministers from countries on the sidelines of the conference, AFP reported.
The U.S. claims that its forces are in Syria to fight Daesh, but the Arab country and its allies fighting the terrorist group dispute the claim.
Daesh militants have been boxed into a small area as the group battles over its remaining patch of territory in northeastern Syria.
On Saturday, U.S.-backed militants reportedly captured the last enclave held by Daesh in Syria under a deal with the terrorist group, a UK-based monitoring group said.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the last few hundred Daesh elements, many of them foreigners, had surrendered in the past two days to SDF militants.
The SDF, it added, is currently conducting sweeping operations in the farms near the town of Al-Baghuz Fawqani in Syria's eastern Dayr al-Zawr province in search for Daesh militants hiding in tunnels.
Retaking the last Daesh enclave completely ends the terrorists' presence at the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.
Under the deal, 200 militants have surrendered to the SDF and 240 more are expected to surrender in the future, it said.
Over the past months, there have been numerous reports of the U.S. airlifting Daesh amid fresh sweeping advances by Syrian army soldiers and allied fighters against the takfiri terrorists.
Iranian officials and other sources have warned that the U.S. is relocating the militants from Syria to Afghanistan.
Speaking on a panel at the Munich Security Conference, Senator Lindsey Graham said the U.S. would consider keeping some troops in Syria if Washington's allies agreed to deploy their own forces to help create a buffer zone near the Turkish border with Syria.
Graham said he discussed the plan ahead of the conference with U.S. General Joseph Votel and President Donald Trump, who announced in December that the U.S. planned to pull about 2,000 American troops out of Syria.
Votel, who is the top general leading U.S. occupation in Syria, has been vocal in his opposition to the withdrawal of American forces.
"I'm hoping that President Trump will be coming to some of you and asking for your help and you will say yes. And in return, the capability that we have that is unique to the United States will still be in the fight in Syria," said Graham, before calling on international officials in the room to send their own troops.
This is the only play the United States has left to maintain some influence and presence in northeastern Syria, the Washington Post wrote.
Graham also said the U.S. would try to gain support for the plan at the conference.
Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan did not secure any solid pledges of support, however, as he met with 13 defense ministers from countries on the sidelines of the conference, AFP reported.
The U.S. claims that its forces are in Syria to fight Daesh, but the Arab country and its allies fighting the terrorist group dispute the claim.
Daesh militants have been boxed into a small area as the group battles over its remaining patch of territory in northeastern Syria.
On Saturday, U.S.-backed militants reportedly captured the last enclave held by Daesh in Syria under a deal with the terrorist group, a UK-based monitoring group said.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the last few hundred Daesh elements, many of them foreigners, had surrendered in the past two days to SDF militants.
The SDF, it added, is currently conducting sweeping operations in the farms near the town of Al-Baghuz Fawqani in Syria's eastern Dayr al-Zawr province in search for Daesh militants hiding in tunnels.
Retaking the last Daesh enclave completely ends the terrorists' presence at the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.
Under the deal, 200 militants have surrendered to the SDF and 240 more are expected to surrender in the future, it said.
Over the past months, there have been numerous reports of the U.S. airlifting Daesh amid fresh sweeping advances by Syrian army soldiers and allied fighters against the takfiri terrorists.
Iranian officials and other sources have warned that the U.S. is relocating the militants from Syria to Afghanistan.