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On August 17, the Pentagon denied recent Arab news reports about a plan by the United States-led coalition to launch a military operation in order to cut off Iranian-backed forces access to a key border crossing between Iraq and Syria.
Press Secretary Brigade General Pat Ryder told journalists that the recent news reports were “false” and that US forces are not involved in security on the Iraqi border.
“I’m not tracking any significant shift in forces as it pertains to the defeat of ISIS mission in Syria,” Ryder said in response to a question by Al-Monitor. “We don’t provide border security. That’s the role of the Iraqi government.”
A day earlier, the news reports were denied by a senior commander of the U.S.-led coalition, Major General Matthew McFarlane.
“The coalition is not preparing for military operations to cut off anybody except Daesh [IS]. We remain focused on Daesh,” the commander told reporters during a phone briefing from Baghdad on August 16.
Iranian-backed forces are present in Deir Ezzor to counter ISIS and secure the border line with Iraq. The coalition also maintains bases in the eastern governorate, among other parts of Syria, under the pretext of fighting ISIS. However, the Syrian government does not approve of this presence.
The U.S.-led coalition and its proxies have been amassing their forces along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in Deir Ezzor for the last two months.
Several news reports said that the coalition is planning to attack forces backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the government-held western bank of the river. The main goal of the plan, according to the reports, would be to capture the town of al-Bukamal in the southern Deir Ezzor countryside along with the nearby border crossing.
The reports coupled with coalition movements led to high tensions with Iranian-backed forces. Earlier this month, there were reports of several attacks against U.S.-led coalition bases in eastern and northern Syria with a local group linked to the IRGC claiming responsibility.
Any hostile military move by the U.S.-led coalition along the Syrian-Iraqi border could lead to a dangerous confrontation that could quickly expand into Iraq.
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