Small Wars Journal

U.S. Troops Leaving Syria Will Be Assigned to Iraq, Defense Chief Says

Sun, 10/20/2019 - 4:08am

U.S. Troops Leaving Syria Will Be Assigned to Iraq, Defense Chief Says by Nancy A. Youssef – Wall Street Journal

All of the roughly 1,000 U.S. troops ordered to leave northeastern Syria will move to western Iraq and will conduct U.S. operations against the Islamic State extremist group from there, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said.

Speaking to reporters en route to the Middle East late Saturday night, the defense chief said the Pentagon had yet to work out exactly how it would conduct its campaign outside of Syria.

Among the issues to be addressed are how to conduct the U.S. air mission, the role of allies and whether a small number of U.S. troops could re-enter Syria to execute specific missions against the militant group, the defense chief said…

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