AT-TANF, Syria (September 20, 2017) – The US is ready to leave the military base in the Syrian city of At-Tanf. This is reported by the news agency RIA Novosti, citing a source in military diplomatic circles. However, it is not yet known when the withdrawal of the US forces will begin.
In At-Tanf on the southeast border with Iraq, there is a military base where the US soldiers train Syrian opposition members and equip them to fight against the “Islamic State” (IS). In May and June, the US coalition had attacked Syrian government troops from the air who had approached the armed opposition units not far from At-Tanf. There were no further clashes between US-backed opposition fighters on the one hand and the government army and its allies on the other.
At the end of June, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the activities of the international coalition would only take place in the agreed zones around At-Tanf and east of the river Euphrates. No violations of this agreement been found.
As the Syrian military expert and brigadier general Ali Maksud said, the location of the At-Tanf base, which is crossed by the roads from Jordan to Deir-ez-Zor and Raqqa, was particularly important for military operations in this area of Syria.
But “due to the combined efforts of the Syrian and Iraqi armies, as well as the occupation of the strategically important towns of Resafa and Kalat al-Resafa, the At-Tanf base has lost its importance,” the general said.
The Syrian political expert Talib Ibrahim said that the Americans’ stay in At-Tanf or any other place in Syria was without any legal basis. Neither the US Congress, nor US politicians nor the UN had taken such a decision. There was also no agreements with the Syrian Government which is a sovereign state, Talib Ibrahim said.
