Soldiers – indeed, officers, have openly questioned the motives of the commander in chief and disparaged his order to withdraw up to 1,000 troops from areas of direct conflict in northeastern Syria.
U.S. forces could not transfer about five dozen high-value ISIS detainees before the Pentagon’s decision to move U.S. forces out of the zone of Turkish military operations.
SMART news agency said it spoke to the leader of the U.S. commando patrol who told SMART that “their forces will target the Turkish army if it advances inside Syrian territory more than the agreed distance between the United States and Turkey,” according to a translation of the Arabic caption describing the video.
Now the Syrian Democratic Forces are fighting off a massive Turkish invasion with no assistance from the U.S. military, according to a former U.S. special operator who worked with Syrian Kurds while in uniform and now with the SDF through a non-governmental organization.
The U.S. will hand over to Iraqi authorities nearly 50 Islamic State members who were transferred from Syria in recent days, two Iraqi intelligence officials said Thursday.
Two British militants believed to be part of an Islamic State group that beheaded hostages and was known as "The Beatles" have been moved out of a detention center in Syria and are in American custody, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
According to a release from Operation Inherent Resolve, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have nabbed several ISIS commanders and facilitators in counterterrorism operations spanning Oct. 2 to Oct. 5.
“Turkey has neither the intent, desire, nor capacity to manage 60k detainees in al Hol camp, which State and DoD IGs [inspector general] warn is the nucleus for a resurgent ISIS. Believing otherwise is a reckless gamble with our national security,” Brett McGurk, Trump’s former envoy for the fight against ISIS, tweeted.
The U.S. president has decided to withdraw his troops from northeastern Syria, essentially clearing the path for a Turkish military invasion of the region.