Hundreds of Iranian-backed militiamen,
fighting alongside government troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad,
are amassing near a U.S.-training base located near the country’s border with
Iraq, the Defense Department confirmed Tuesday.
Pro-Assad fighters supported by Tehran have
begun conducting patrols near the southern Syrian town of At Tanf, which is
home to a U.S. training camp for moderate Syrian militias battling the Islamic
State, said Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis.
American commanders and their Russian
counterparts, deployed to Syria in support of the Assad regime, have designated
At Tanf and the surrounding areas as a deconfliction zone, which bars any
interference by any outside forces of coalition operations within the area.
“We continue to see massing [of forces] and we
are concerned about that,” Capt. Davis told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday.
“These patrols are unacceptable and threaten coalition forces” operating within
the deconfliction zones, he said, adding that American forces would defend
themselves, should regime troops attempt to breach the zone.
American and coalition aircraft have dropped
leaflets onto regime positions near At Tanf, in an effort to encourage those
forces to cease their patrols and move away from the zone, Capt. Davis said.
His comments came amid reports that U.S.
weapons and vehicles have been shipped to Syrian Kurds, as part of a plan
authorized by President Trump to overtly supply U.S. heavy weapons, artillery
and tactical vehicles to Kurdish elements battling the Islamic State in Syria.
The Kurdish paramilitaries, under the
U.S.-backed umbrella of several Kurdish and Arab paramilitary groups known as
Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF, received shipments of small arms and vehicles
over the last 24 hours, Reuters reports.
Among the recipients of those weapons
deliveries were members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG. The
group, which is a key member of the SDF, is the armed wing of the Kurdish
Worker’s Party or PKK. The group is responsible for numerous bombings and
attacks inside Turkey, prompting Ankara to label the PKK as a terrorist
organization.
Earlier this month, American fighters launched
an airstrike against a convoy of Iranian paramilitaries who attempted to enter
the deconfliction zone near At Tanf. it was the first U.S. airstrike in Syria
explicitly targeting forces loyal to the Assad regime.
Initially, U.S. forces
identified the convoy as belonging to the Syrian military. A day later, Defense
Secretary James Mattis confirmed the target of the airstrike to be
“Iranian-directed troops” during a May 19 press conference.
Coalition officials initially tried to stem
the advance of the Iranian convoy with a series of warning shots and U.S.
aircraft carrying out a low flyover above the convoy in a show of force.
Coalition forces even reached out to Russian counterparts, via the standing
deconfliction channel between the two militaries, in order to halt the Iranian
force advancing into the zone, command officials say.
In the end, U.S. fighters were forced to
engage the Iranian force by launching airstrikes against the convoy.
Capt. Davis on Tuesday declined to comment on
whether the roving patrols near At Tanf were either directed by elements ofIran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps or whether they were affiliated with
Hezbollah, the terrorist organization sponsored by Tehran.
Both organizations have fought alongside
regime forces to retake territory from rebel groups battling to overthrow the
regime for the last six years. Earlier this year, with the support of a
blistering Russian aerial assault, Iranian and regime forces were able to
retake the rebel stronghold of Aleppo, which had been under opposition control
for four years.
Tehran’s interference in Syria and its support
for the Assad regime has only served to extend the country’s bloody civil war,
Mr. Mattis said earlier this month.
“Iran’s activities have not been helpful …
extending a war that should have been done years ago,” the Pentagon chief said
at the time.
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