Report: US to leave troops in southern Syria as bulwark against Iran

Report: US to leave troops in southern Syria as bulwark against Iran

Report: US to leave troops in southern Syria as bulwark against Iran

Document said to outline pullout from country includes proposal to continue manning al-Tanf base near Iraqi border, after Israeli withdrawal could give Iran greater leeway

Document said to outline pullout from country includes proposal to continue manning al-Tanf base near Iraqi border, after Israeli withdrawal could give Iran greater leeway

The Thursday report came as an American official told CNN the US had begun moving some equipment out of Syria, marking the start with of the withdrawal from the war-torn state.

Most US forces are concentrated in the northeast of Syria, where the last bastions of the Islamic State terror group are located, but soldiers also maintain a base near southern Syria in an area known as al-Tanf, on the Iraqi border.

The base is seen as key to monitoring and thwarting Iranian efforts to move personnel and weapons overland into Syria, where it has been fighting alongside the Bashar Assad regime and seeks to entrench itself militarily, according to Israeli assessments.

Jerusalem has reportedly lobbied for the Donald Trump administration to reconsider pulling troops out of al-Tanf, and according to the Middle East Eye, the US withdrawal plan would leave soldiers there.

“The US is not withdrawing from the base at al-Tanf at this time,” the Turkish official was quoted saying.

The base is seen as key to monitoring and thwarting Iranian efforts to move personnel and weapons overland into Syria, where it has been fighting alongside the Bashar Assad regime and seeks to entrench itself militarily, according to Israeli assessments.

Jerusalem has reportedly lobbied for the Donald Trump administration to reconsider pulling troops out of al-Tanf, and according to the Middle East Eye, the US withdrawal plan would leave soldiers there.

“The US is not withdrawing from the base at al-Tanf at this time,” the Turkish official was quoted saying.

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Read More: Times Of Israel

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