US fears ISIS resurrection so much they’ve moved 1,000 troops to nearby Iraq despite Trump vowing they’re coming ‘home’
US troops withdrawing from Syria will not be going home as Donald Trump promised — because they’re off to nearby Iraq to battle a ISIS comeback.
About 1,000 troops had been deployed alongside Kurdish forces in the fight against the death cult, but were suddenly withdrawn earlier this month because the US President was “ending endless wars”.
But it seems Pentagon chiefs are so concerned about a jihadi resurrection, the troops will actually be moving to Iraq instead of going home.
It has emerged the American forces were pulled out after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made it clear in a phone call he was about to invade.
Erodogan is determined to crush Kurd-led forces because he considers them to be terrorists with links to Kurdish separatist insurgents in his own country.
USA soldiers are not in combat or ceasefire zones… [we’re] bringing soldiers home
US President Donald Trump
But since the Turkish invasion there have been reports of hundreds of ISIS affiliated prisoners breaking out Kurd-run camps as bombs rain down.
Amid this background the US troops will be heading to Iraq to bolster an existing 5,000 strong force in the battle to fight the jihadis.
US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said last night: “The troops going into Iraq will have two missions.
“One is to help defend Iraq and two is to perform a counter-ISIS mission as we sort through the next steps.
“Things could change between now and whenever we complete the withdrawal, but that’s the game plan right now.”
Yet despite the blatant change of plan, Trump nonetheless tweeted: “USA soldiers are not in combat or ceasefire zones.
“We have secured the oil. Bringing soldiers home!”
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The President declared this past week that Washington had no stake in defending the Kurdish fighters who died by the thousands as America’s partners fighting in Syria against ISIS extremists.
Turkey conducted a week-long offensive into northeastern Syria against the Kurdish fighters before a military pause.
“It’s time for us to come home,” Trump said, defending his removal of US troops from that part of Syria and praising his decision to send more troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia to help the kingdom defend against Iran.
But a top Kurdish general told NBC News he fears the Turkish invasion will result in “ethnic cleansing”.
He said: “We trusted them for five years and the continuing war against ISIS, but now [there is] ethnic cleansing against the Kurdish people under their eyes.
“If they wanted, they would have interfered to stop it.”
Gen. Mazloum Kobani, commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, said that the U.S. bears full responsibility for what is happening.
Kurds in northern Syria took to the streets over the weekend, pleading with US soldiers who are pulling out of the war-torn region to stay.
Since American forces began pulling out of the region, 300,000 Kurdish people have been displaced and at least 114 civilians have reportedly been killed since October 9.
They have been backed by the United States during the eight-year-old Syrian civil war against the cruel Assad regime and also Isis — which exploited the conflict and captured territory to form its so called, if not ultimately doomed, caliphate.