PROTECTING U$ OIL INTERSTS IN NORTH
By AFP
April 18, 2025
US forces patrol near Syria's northeastern border with Turkey on September 3, 2024 - Copyright AFP/File DELIL SOULEIMAN
W.G. DUNLOP
The United States will roughly halve the number of troops it has deployed in Syria to less than 1,000 in the coming months, the Pentagon said Friday.
Washington has had troops in Syria for years as part of international efforts against the Islamic State (IS) group, which rose out of the chaos of the country’s civil war to seize swaths of territory there and in neighboring Iraq over a decade ago.
The brutal jihadists have since suffered major defeats in both countries, but still remain a threat.
“Today the secretary of defense directed the consolidation of US forces in Syria… to select locations,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, without specifying the sites where this would take place.
“This deliberate and conditions-based process will bring the US footprint in Syria down to less than 1,000 US forces in the coming months,” he said.
“As this consolidation takes place… US Central Command will remain poised to continue strikes against the remnants of (IS) in Syria,” Parnell added, referring to the military command responsible for the region.
President Donald Trump has long been skeptical of Washington’s presence in Syria, ordering the withdrawal of troops during his first term but ultimately leaving American forces in the country.
As Islamist-led rebels pressed forward with a lightning offensive last December that ultimately overthrew Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Trump said Washington should “NOT GET INVOLVED!”
“Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” Trump, then the president-elect, wrote on his Truth Social platform.
– Years of war against IS –
The 2014 onslaught by IS prompted a US-led air campaign in support of local ground forces — the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Iraqi government units.
Washington also deployed thousands of American personnel to advise and assist local forces, with US troops in some cases directly fighting the jihadists.
After years of bloody warfare, Iraq’s prime minister announced a final victory over IS in December 2017, while the SDF proclaimed the defeat of the group’s “caliphate” in March 2019 after seizing its final bastion in Syria.
But the jihadists still have some fighters in the countryside of both countries, and US forces have long carried out periodic strikes and raids to help prevent the group’s resurgence.
Washington stepped up military action against IS in Syria in the wake of Assad’s overthrow, though it has more recently shifted its focus to strikes targeting Yemen’s Huthi rebels, who have been attacking international shipping since late 2023.
US forces in Iraq and Syria were repeatedly targeted by pro-Iran militants following the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, but responded with heavy strikes on Tehran-linked targets, and the attacks largely subsided.
Washington for years said it had some 900 military personnel in Syria as part of international efforts against IS, but the Pentagon announced in December 2024 that the number of US troops in the country had doubled to around 2,000 earlier in the year.
While the United States is reducing its forces in Syria, Iraq has also sought an end to the US-led coalition’s presence there, where Washington has said it has some 2,500 troops.
The United States and Iraq have announced that the coalition would end its decade-long military mission in federal Iraq by the end of 2025, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan region.
Syria Expects to Reclaim US-Occupied Oil Fields Soon
© AFP 2024 YOUSSEF KARWASHAN
DOHA (Sputnik) - The United States military currently controls parts of Syria's provinces of Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Al-Hasakah, where the country's largest oil and gas fields are located. The Syrian government considers the presence of the US military on its territory to be an occupation and state piracy.Syria expects to return oil fields that are important but remain under the US's occupation to the control of the Syrian government in the near future, Syrian Oil Minister Firas Hassan Kaddour told Sputnik.Many oil fields in northern Syria were destroyed as a result of attacks by terrorist groups, these fields returned to the control of the Syrian government, and their restoration began, the official said."We expect to liberate the [oil] fields remaining under occupation in the very near future, return them to the Syrian Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources and begin their restoration," the minister said on the sidelines of the 12th Arab Energy Conference in Qatar's capital city, Doha.
In 2024, Syria will conduct seismic exploration north of its capital Damascus and in other areas to search for oil and gas deposits, he added.The reconstruction of an oil refinery in the central Syrian province of Homs, which was seriously damaged during the fighting in the country, is expected to begin in 2024, Kaddour added."We have defined a plan for the restoration of the oil refinery in Homs, dividing the work into three stages. The first stage is its current repair, which is being carried out by our specialists. The second part is its reconstruction next year, with reconstruction plans being studied now. The development of the plant - that is in long-term plans," the official said.Last week, the head of coordination of Iranian activities to carry out repair work at extraterritorial oil refineries, Ali Shahverdi, said that Iran would begin rebuilding the Homs refinery with a processing capacity of 120,000 barrels.
US occupation building oil refinery in Syria's Al-Hasakah: SANA
© AFP 2024 YOUSSEF KARWASHAN
DOHA (Sputnik) - The United States military currently controls parts of Syria's provinces of Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Al-Hasakah, where the country's largest oil and gas fields are located. The Syrian government considers the presence of the US military on its territory to be an occupation and state piracy.
Syria expects to return oil fields that are important but remain under the US's occupation to the control of the Syrian government in the near future, Syrian Oil Minister Firas Hassan Kaddour told Sputnik.
Many oil fields in northern Syria were destroyed as a result of attacks by terrorist groups, these fields returned to the control of the Syrian government, and their restoration began, the official said.
"We expect to liberate the [oil] fields remaining under occupation in the very near future, return them to the Syrian Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources and begin their restoration," the minister said on the sidelines of the 12th Arab Energy Conference in Qatar's capital city, Doha.
In 2024, Syria will conduct seismic exploration north of its capital Damascus and in other areas to search for oil and gas deposits, he added.
The reconstruction of an oil refinery in the central Syrian province of Homs, which was seriously damaged during the fighting in the country, is expected to begin in 2024, Kaddour added.
"We have defined a plan for the restoration of the oil refinery in Homs, dividing the work into three stages. The first stage is its current repair, which is being carried out by our specialists. The second part is its reconstruction next year, with reconstruction plans being studied now. The development of the plant - that is in long-term plans," the official said.
Last week, the head of coordination of Iranian activities to carry out repair work at extraterritorial oil refineries, Ali Shahverdi, said that Iran would begin rebuilding the Homs refinery with a processing capacity of 120,000 barrels.
US occupation building oil refinery in Syria's Al-Hasakah: SANA
By Al Mayadeen Net
Source: Agencies
9 Jan 2022
US occupation forces continue with their pillaging policy, depriving Syria and its people of their natural resources, contributing to their suffering.
According to state news agency SANA, the US and Kurdish armed groups have begun construction of an oil refinery in Al-Hasakah governorate in northeastern Syria.
The new plant at Rmelan fields in Al-Hasakah's northeast is expected to have a capacity of 3,000 barrels per day, according to the Syrian agency. Rmelan is home to one of Syria's largest oil resources.
The US forces illegally occupy territories in the northern and northeastern parts of Syria, where the country's major oil and gas fields are located. Damascus has decried the US presence there as occupation and pillaging.
US occupation base in Syria targeted again
Eight explosions were heard on January 8, in the vicinity of Al-Omar oil field in Syria's Deir Ezzor countryside, Sputnik reported.
The oil field is being used by the US occupation as a military base, its largest in eastern Syria. Local sources reported that the eight explosions were heard in the towns and villages surrounding the oil field, which is the biggest in Syria.
Al-Omar oil field and the Koniko gas factory have both been targeted by rockets. No information has been provided on the occupation's possible losses.
Al Mayadeen's sources had also reported on January 5 that Al-Omar was targeted by rocket fire. The sources added that the missiles caused material damage to the base, placing the entire base and its soldiers on alert.
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