Washington has reportedly dispatched military columns, including multiple armored vehicles that arrived in Al-Hasakah and later moved toward the city of Al-Shadadi in the southern Hasakah countryside from a military base north of the Khabour Dam. The field sources further told Al-Manar that three military cars allegedly under French flags followed into a Kurdish militia base in northwestern Hasakah.
READ MORE: Trump Thanks Macron for 'Steadfast Partnership' in US-Led Strikes on Syria
According to the Fars news agency reported, citing Moraseloun website, which, in turn, referred to media activists, saying that the US Army had set up a military base between the towns of Tell Tamer and Tal Bidar in Hasakah province.
Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov laid out his opinion on US President Donald Trump’s promise to withdraw troops from Syria.
“The US pledged that their only aim was to banish terrorists from Syria, to defeat the so-called ‘Islamic State,’ but despite all their claims, despite President Trump’s claims, the US is in fact positioning itself on the Eastern bank of the Euphrates and has no intention of leaving,” Lavrov said.
The foreign minister’s remark is less than a month after President Trump promised to “leave Syria, like, very soon,” apparently contradicting earlier comments by his administration, including high-ranking officials at the Pentagon and State Department, claiming that US troops would maintain an open-ended presence in Syria.
READ MORE: Syrian Army Possesses Modern Russia-Made Pansir Systems — Source
Since 2014, the US-led international coalition has been carrying out airstrikes on what it described as Daesh* targets in Syria, without either a UN mandate, or the Syrian authorities’ permission. Damascus has repeatedly dismissed the American military presence in the country as “illegal.”
*Daesh, also known as ISIL/ISIS/IS, a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries
