MESOP MIDEAST WATCH US to Maintain Military Presence in Syria: Embassy

13-11-2021 ERBIL BAS NEWS — The United States will maintain its military presence in Syria to continue the battle against the Islamic State (IS), the US Embassy in Syria said on Saturday.

“ISIS poses a direct threat both to the Syrian people and U.S. national security interests,” the embassy wrote on its official Twitter account, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State.

“The U.S. will maintain our military presence in Syria to ensure the threat from the terrorist group is eliminated,” it added, pointing out that the Syrian and American people “deserve nothing less”.

Earlier on November 8, media outlets affiliated with the Syrian regime claimed the US forces were withdrawing from Kharb al-Jir airport in the northeastern countryside of Hasakah, northeast of Syria.

Last Wednesday, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby also told reporters that his country’s military would remain in Syria to defeat IS.

“Our partnership with the SDF in Syria is based on one thing and one thing only, and that’s going after ISIS, and that partnership continues because that threat continues,” he said when asked about the joint works between the US forces and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.