U.S. Marines with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment provide security support during mission on Sept. 9, 2018, at an undisclosed location in Syria. (Cpl. Gabino Perez/Marine Corps)
Fresh U.S. forces entered northeast Syrian on November 26 coming from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The UK-based monitoring group said in a report that the forces consisted of three armored vehicles and three “battle tanks,” which likely means M2A2 Bradley Infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs).
“U.S. warplanes escorted the [force’s] convoy,” the SOHR’s report reads.
These forces will likely head to one of the remaining U.S. bases in the eastern Syrian governorates of al-Hasakah and Deir Ezzor, where the U.S. military is supposedly “guarding” oil fields.
Earlier this year, the U.S. had 1,000 service members deployed throughout northeast Syria. Most of these troops were pulled out last October to facilitate a Turkish-led attack on the region.
Now, the Pentagon says that it will be keeping around 500 troops in the northeastern region to “guard” Syrian oil fields and to conduct joint operations with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against ISIS remnants there.
Op Petropurloin going according to plan
It’s all about the oil. Kurdish communist party thinks yanks are there for them to found a communist statelet at a NATO ally’s border. Real Kurds are neither communist nor trust Americans.
Its about no oil for Assads.
It’s asset denial not protection, the US is stopping someone getting to the oil that’s all they’re doing, the question is who are they denying. When Trump first began pulling out the troops did he mention the oil even once, no he didn’t, and did he say he was going to leave even one US soldier to help the Kurds fight Isis, no to that too, he only changed his plans after Erdogan invaded and didn’t stick to the US/Turkish agreement, that’s when it became important to protect the oil and the Kurds from Isis. The US making a pitiful 120 mill a year from Syrian oil is a laughable reason for protecting the oil, it’s been costing the us 15 billion a year. The oil will save them some money true, but the cost will go from 15,000,000,000 a year to 14,000,880,000 a year, whoopdi doo. If Trump’s real intention all along was to deny Assad access to his own oil, he would have put protective measures in place long before the US started pulling out it’s troops, and the fact he didn’t suggests to me that that wasn’t his intention at all, I’m pretty sure Erdogan’s the only person being denied access to the Syrian oil.
““battle tanks,” which likely means M2A2 Bradley Infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs).”
Calling IFV´s “battle tanks” just shows how little knowledge SOHR have about basic military terminology and equipment.