Troops, armored vehicles enter Syria to protect oil fields from ISIS

U.S. troops and armored vehicles entered Syria Thursday on a mission to protect oil fields from falling into the hands of Islamic State terrorists, according to a U.S. official.

Dozens of soldiers and fewer than 10 Bradley armored vehicles moved into the northeastern part of Syria, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. It’s not clear how many troops or vehicles ultimately will be deployed, the official said.

The deployment comes less than a week after President Trump ordered the raid that killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. U.S. commandos used a base in Syria to mount the attack by helicopter.

On Thursday, the spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS tweeted photos of troops loading Bradley vehicles aboard aircraft for the mission in Syria. It is the first time in the five-year war on ISIS that American armor has been used to fight the extremists. The U.S.-led coalition has relied mainly on airstrikes to support local forces on the ground.

The region in northeastern Syria is home to oil wealth that Pentagon officials and Trump have vowed to keep from falling into the hands of ISIS. The movement of troops and armor is the latest in Trump’s whip-sawing strategy for Syria. In December 2018, he ordered a full withdrawal of the 2,000 troops who had been in Syria advising and fighting alongside mostly Kurdish forces who had routed ISIS.

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That announcement prompted the resignation of then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Trump relented to pressure from Congress to maintain a force of about 1,000 troops in the country. On Oct. 6, Trump ordered a withdrawal of virtually all U.S. troops from Syria, paving the way for Turkey to press an assault against Kurds whom the Turks consider terrorists.

Congress again raised alarms, calling it a betrayal of the Kurds that risked unleashing chaos in the region, to the benefit of Russia and Iran.

Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, who leads U.S. Central Command, told reporters Wednesday that keeping oil fields from ISIS chokes off revenue the group needs to mount a comeback.

“What we want to do is ensure that ISIS is not able to regain possession of any of the oil fields that would allow them to gain income going forward,” McKenzie said. “So that’s – we’ve got forces at Deir ez-Zor, that is – we have brought in some reinforcements there. We’ll await further decisions of the U.S. government about how that plan is going to look in the long term.”

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