Pentagon confirms ‘around 2,000’ U.S. troops deployed in Syria
Washington quietly doubled the official number of troops present inside Syria at an unspecified point before the fall of Damascus.
The U.S. illegally deployed troops in Syria in November 2015 to allegedly “prevent the return of ISIS.” This came just two months after Russia accepted the request of Damascus to provide air support to the Syrian army, Iranian special forces, and Hezbollah in their fight against ISIS forces who threatened to overrun the Syrian capital.
In the chaos that ensued, Washington and allied Kurdish militias seized control of Syria’s resource-rich northeast, where the U.S. army remains to this day and regularly loots Syrian resources. Hundreds of U.S. troops are also present in the massive Al-Tanf base near the tri-border area connecting Syria, Iraq, and Jordan.
In 2019, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump detailed why Washington intends to uphold the occupation of northeast Syria, saying, “We want to bring our soldiers home. But we did leave soldiers because we’re keeping the oil .… I like oil. We’re keeping the oil.”
