WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Pentagon said President
Donald Trump had ordered the withdrawal of up to 1,000 troops from northern Syria — almost the entire ground force in the war-torn country — amid an intensifying Turkish assault on Kurdish forces.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the move came after the US learned that
Turkey was pressing further into Syria than expected.
The Kurds — with whom the US partnered to combat the Daesh group — later announced they had reached a deal with the Syrian government
to deploy Syrian troops near the border to confront the Turkish offensive.
“We have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing
armies and it’s a very untenable situation,” Esper told CBS’s “Face the
Nation.”
“So I spoke with the president last night after discussions with the rest
of the national security team and he directed that we begin a deliberate
withdrawal of forces from northern Syria.”
Esper said he was unable to provide a timeline because of the changing
situation on the ground, but added that the withdrawal would be carried out in a “very safe, deliberate manner.”
“It’s a very terrible situation over there, a situation caused by the
Turks… Despite our opposition they decided to make this incursion into
Syria,” Esper told CBS.
“And at this point in time in the last 24 hours we learned that they likely
intend to expand their attack further south than originally planned and to
the west.”
Esper also pointed to a possible deal — confirmed later Sunday by the
Kurdish administration in northern Syria — on a Syrian troop deployment near the border with Turkey to help the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) confront Ankara’s offensive.
The US withdrawal announcement came after its troops came under artillery fire Friday which the Pentagon said was from Turkish positions.
Asked if troops would be leaving the country altogether, Esper clarified
that the withdrawal was just from northern Syria, “which is where most of our forces are.”
Fighting raged Sunday along the border on the fifth day of an offensive
that has provoked an international outcry and left dozens of civilians and
fighters dead.
Ankara launched the long-threatened offensive against the SDF, which it
considers “terrorists” linked to insurgents inside Turkey, after Trump
ordered special forces serving as a trip wire against Turkish action to pull
back from the border. — NNN-AGENCIES
