This archive report was first published on 8 November 2019.
On October 6, 2019, US President Donald Trump announced that the 1,000 soldiers deployed in northeast Syria to fight the Islamic State (IS) would pull back. However, a month later, the United States has maintained a significant presence on the ground.
According to Rear Admiral William Byrne, the vice director of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the 'steady withdrawal' from areas near Turkey is ongoing, with most equipment having been moved. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key US ally in the military campaign against the IS group, initially felt betrayed by Washington's decision to pull back but have since resumed cooperating with US troops.
The Pentagon is still providing the SDF with weapons, and US troops will remain in Syria 'as long as we believe it's necessary,' according to a Pentagon spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman. The mission, he emphasized, is the defeat of ISIS, with the securing of the oil fields being a subordinate task.
However, the presence of Russian, Turkish, and Syrian forces in the north has opened a new front, increasing the complexity of US military operations in Syria. The deployment of armored units in the Deir Ezzor region, where the country's main oil fields are located, is a response to the changing security landscape.
The Pentagon is using the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) as the basis for taking control of the Syrian oil fields. When asked if the United States was stealing Syrian oil, Hoffman replied that the revenue from the oil fields would go to the SDF, not the US.
