Small Wars Journal

U.S. Troops Withdrawing From Syria Draw Scorn

Mon, 10/21/2019 - 1:32pm

U.S. Troops Withdrawing From Syria Draw Scorn by Sune Engel Rasmussen and Isabel Coles – Wall Street Journal

Civilians in Kurdish areas hurled rotten fruit and insults at a convoy of U.S. military vehicles that crossed from northern Syria into Iraq early Monday, marking a dramatic drawdown to an American presence in Syria to combat Islamic State.

A Wall Street Journal reporter saw around a dozen armored vehicles on the road near Sheikhan in northern Iraq flying American flags. Stony-faced U.S. soldiers flashed victory signs for the camera.

They appeared to be part of a larger convoy that passed through the town of Duhok about 37 miles from the Syrian border earlier Monday. A witness there heard onlookers in the predominantly Kurdish area curse the soldiers. One man called them “sons of bitches” and shouted at them to get out, he said.

The convoy faced the greatest hostility inside Syria, as it left…

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