United States increases its military presence in Syria

A large U.S. military convoy entered northeastern Syria in the last few hours bringing with them reinforcements and supplies. The U.S. Army entered Al-Hasaka province from neighboring Iraq, heading for the district of Al-Malikiyah, near the border crossing in northeast Syria and northwest Iraqi Kurdistan. 

According to Al-Masdar media sources, U.S. vehicles entered the Al-Walid Crossing in the north of Iraqi territory before heading to the Al-Malikiyah district airbase in Al-Hasaka.

"A few hours ago, a convoy of 35 trucks loaded with military and logistical material entered Al-Hasaka province, 866 kilometers northeast of the Syrian capital of Damaso," according to the official Syrian news agency SANA. 

The official army of Bachar al-Asad's regime proceeded to stop this commando, formed by five vehicles, when it was near a checkpoint in the enclave of Hammo; something that was cheered by the Syrian population, which opposes the American presence in their nation. 

Armed men in uniforms and inhabitants of the north-eastern province of Al-Hasaka blocked the path of the convoy of American forces as it tried to cross through the town of Hammo, forcing it to turn back, according to the version of eyewitness reports.

Local sources confirmed that the U.S. military convoy, which consisted of five vehicles, approached a Syrian army checkpoint in the village. "The villagers gathered at the military point and blocked the convoy that was forced to turn around," they added. 

On several occasions, the inhabitants of this Syrian region had already expelled U.S. military detachments; the last but one was in late March.

Despite having withdrawn most of its forces from northern Syria in recent months, leaving alone the members of the Democratic Syrian Forces (DSF) who worked so hard to defeat the Daesh terrorist group in its last stronghold of Al-Baghouz a year ago, the US Army continues to assign troops to control bases in the Al-Hasaka area, especially facilities near oil fields. 

Most US troops in Syria have reorganized in the eastern region of the Arab nation since January 2020, where they now control a large oil-producing area of the country. 

Thus, in the Syrian conflict, which has been going on since 2011, the US dominates several positions in oil and gas fields in Syria and supports the DSF, well-disposed armed groups in the Al-Jazeera region, east of the Euphrates River. 

All that concerns Syria and Iraq grows in relevance due to the enormous importance of crude oil in the face of the wars over the price of oil between Saudi Arabia and Russia. In addition, criticism from Donald Trump's US government concerning OPEC's policy accelerated when his country considered reducing oil imports.  
 

Meanwhile, the Bachar al-Asad government's campaign to regain the ground still held by the opposition forces within the Syrian war continues; it is justified by the objective set of wiping out jihadist terrorist forces, whose last stronghold is in the province of Idlib, in the northwest of Syria.  

Al-Asad still has the strong support of Vladimir Putin to achieve his goals. In this scenario, according to the London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper, a large column of Russian armoured vehicles arrived on Sunday in the DSF-controlled cities of Manbij and Kobane, which share interests with Damascus. 

In addition, the Russian ally has strengthened its forces stationed at the military base at Qamishli airport in northeast Syria by increasing equipment and soldiers, while the U.S. is also taking a stronger position in this Middle East country. 
 

Russian military operations, which are known by DSF leaders, are now incidentally associated with Al-Asad against a common enemy such as Turkey, a nation that is carrying out an activity of persecution of Kurdish elements on the Turkish-Syrian border. The country headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses the Kurdish ethnic group of terrorism in the south of Tukey. For months it has positioned itself in Syria to expel the People's Protection Units (YPG), which are integrated within the DSF itself.

After the Trump Administration's decision to withdraw troops from Syrian territory, Turkey agreed with the US to create a security zone on the border with Syria, which left the way open for both Turkey and Russia to position themselves in the areas left behind; this also meant abandoning the DSF, which helped defeat Daesh a year ago, to their fate. Recep This deal with the American giant was intended to get the Kurds out of this security area. 
 

Despite the fact that Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a ceasefire for the Idlib area at the beginning of March, tension between Ankara and Damascus is extremely high. However, nothing was signed between Turkey and Syria, which have not given up their objectives. On the one hand, Turkey is still pursuing the Kurdish elements, who are being accused of terrorism against Ottoman interests; on the other hand, the Syrian government is trying to regain control of the whole country, failing to bring down the insurgents based in Idlib.  

Last month, in contacts between Ankara and Moscow to reach a solution to the problem in Syria, Vladimir Putin did not agree to Erdogan's demand for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Idlib, so the dispute continues despite the fact that Turkey and Russia have been maintaining good economic and military relations (including the purchase by Turkey of the Russian S-400 air defence system, something that was not well seen by NATO). 
 

Turkey's National Defence Ministry reported the elimination of nine members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the YPG in northern Syria, considered by Ankara to be terrorist organizations. 

"Our special forces neutralized one YPG/PKK terrorist who tried to infiltrate in the Operation Euphrates Shield area, as well as eight other PKK and YPG terrorists attempting to infiltrate the Operation "Source of Peace", an official statement of the Turkish military authorities said.  

The ''Source of Peace'' operation was launched by Turkey in northeast Syria in October 2019 with the argument of moving the Kurdish militias away from the border and defining a safe area to receive the thousands of Syrian refugees who remain in their territory.