BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – The U.S. military has reportedly sent multiple convoys of trucks carrying troops, military and logistical equipment from deep inside Syria to a major airbase in Iraq’s Anbar province, where American military forces and trainers are based.
An Iraqi security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Maalomah news agency that the convoys entered the Iraqi territory on Saturday, and headed towards al-Asad airbase, located about 160 kilometers west of the capital Baghdad.
The source did not provide any further details about the reasons behind the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Syria, and their deployment in Ain al-Asad base.
He noted that the U.S. military convoys included armored vehicles, logistical equipment, troops, small arms and light weapons (SALW) as well as heavy munitions.
The source emphasized that U.S. military aircraft flew overhead and protected the military convoys as they came into Iraq.
Additionally, unprecedented security measures were implemented on the main and secondary roads leading to Ain al-Asad base.
Pentagon officials confirmed on Friday that the U.S. military was reducing the number of troops it has deployed in Syria by about half over the coming weeks and months.
The Pentagon did not specify in the release how many troops will be pulled out, but The New York Times reported on Thursday that the number is 600.
The release also did not provide a specific timeline for the withdrawal.
The U.S. military has about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria across a number of bases, mostly in the energy-rich northeastern flank of the country.
The U.S. military has since 2014 deployed its forces and equipment in northeastern Syria with no authorization from the Arab country’s government, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.
Damascus, however, maintained the deployment was meant to plunder the country’s natural resources.
Over the past years, multiple footage has emerged revealing that the U.S. occupation forces have used tankers to smuggle Syrian crude oil from the country’s northern provinces to their bases in northern Iraq, as part of Washington’s systematic plundering of Syria’s basic commodities.