Washington: 200 US troops will remain in Syria

SANAA, Feb. 22 (YPA) – The White House announced on Thursday that the Pentagon will keep about 200 US troops in Syria after the withdrawal of President Donald Trump’s troops from the country.

“A small peacekeeping group of some 200 troops will remain in Syria for a while,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

Sanders made no further details, but giving “peacekeeping” to US troops in Syria appeared to be aimed at spurring European allies to send troops there with such a mission.

It was unclear how long the 200-strong force would remain in the area or when it would be deployed.

The decision was made after Trump telephoned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and a White House statement said that with regard to Syria, the two leaders agreed to “continue coordination on the establishment of a possible safe area.”

Keeping a small group of US troops in Syria would pave the way for European allies to pledge hundreds of troops to build and monitor a possible safe area in northeastern Syria.

The United States is leading an illegal coalition to fight allegedly the “Daesh” Takfiri group in Syria, while most of the raids of this alliance since its formation outside the Security Council in August 2014 targeted civilian population and caused the death, injury and displacement of thousands of civilians.

Sameera Hassn