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Hezbollah Leader Warns of Op to Revive Daesh to Justify US Military Presence in Syria, Iraq

© AFP 2023 / AHMAD AL-RUBAYESome 150 US Troops Arrive in Northeastern Syria - Kurdish Security Source
Some 150 US Troops Arrive in Northeastern Syria - Kurdish Security Source - Sputnik International
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During US President Donald Trump's surprise visit to Iraq in late 2018, military commanders warned him that Daesh* had not been entirely defeated in Syria, despite his claims to the contrary.

Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, has warned of an “operation” that “exists” in order to revive Daesh in Iraq, Syria, and other areas.

“Daesh’s revival is aimed at justifying the American forces’ continued presence in the region”, Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Tuesday. He did not elaborate on who was behind the alleged operation.

The Hezbollah leader also claimed that Daesh had managed to expand its foothold in several regional areas after Washington’s assassination of top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in early January.  

© AP Photo / Spc. Zoe Garbarino U.S. Army, soldiers surveil the area during a combined joint patrol in Manbij, Syria (File)
Hezbollah Leader Warns of Op to Revive Daesh to Justify US Military Presence in Syria, Iraq - Sputnik International
U.S. Army, soldiers surveil the area during a combined joint patrol in Manbij, Syria (File)

The general died in a 3 January US drone strike on his car at Baghdad International Airport, an attack that was authorised by President Donald Trump and that exacerbated the Washington-Tehran tensions.

The developments followed President Donald Trump, who had previously announced his intention to withdraw all US forces from north-eastern Syria, saying last year that some American troops would remain there to "guard oil" from Daesh militants.

This 4 April 2018 photo shows a convoy of oil trucks passing a Kurdish police (Assayesh) checkpoint, as they move fuel produced in Kurdish-held areas in the east to other areas controlled by the same US-backed group in the west, on a highway in Hasakah province, Syria.  - Sputnik International
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This was preceded by Trump’s surprise visit to Iraq in late 2018, when American mlitary commanders reportedly told him that pockets of Daesh terrorists "remained in the Euphrates River valley and that US military had not yet eliminated all of their strongholds [in Syria]”.

The visit came after US Vice President Mike Pence claimed the full-fledged destruction of Daesh, adding that the US is "now able to hand off the fight against ISIS [Daesh] to our coalition partners" after the terrorist group's caliphate "crumbled".

The US-led coalition, made up of dozens of countries, has been conducting airstrikes and carrying out ground-based as well as rocket-propelled artillery fire against Daesh in Syria and Iraq since 2014. The coalition’s operation in Syria has not been approved by either Damascus or the UN Security Council.


*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a number of other countries

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