BEIRUT — U.S. troops withdrew on Sunday from another town in Syria as Turkish-backed forces pushed deeper inside Syrian territory, seizing positions along a major highway that serves as the U.S. military’s main supply route into Syria — potentially cutting off U.S. troops further west, according to a U.S. official.
The withdrawal came amid reports that hundreds of Islamic State supporters may have escaped from a camp housing displaced people in the town of Ain Issa, taking advantage of the mayhem that ensued as Turkish artillery pounded the area.
The Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria said in a statement that 785 people affiliated to the Islamic State were among those who got away, escaping from a camp that had housed 12,000 displaced people, mostly women and children.
Around a thousand of those who had been identified as Islamic State supporters, including foreigners, were housed in a separate section of the camp known as the Annex, which is now “completely empty,” according to an aid worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
[Turkish-led forces film themselves executing a Kurdish captive in Syria]
The claim that the Islamic State-linked families had escaped could not be independently confirmed, but Kurdish officials and aid groups said thousands of civilians were also leaving, fleeing across fields to escape the shelling.
Ain Issa, 20 miles south of the Turkish border, served as the headquarters of the Kurdish led administration in northeast Syria and owes its significance to its position beside the important M4 highway, which runs across northeastern Syria from the Iraqi border.
It is the main supply route in and out of Syria for the 1,000 U.S. troops deployed there, as well as for much of the limited aid that reaches northeastern Syria.
As the Turkish-backed Syrian rebels closed in on Sunday, the small number of U.S. troops based in the town were relocated to other bases in Syria, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the press.
Turkish backed rebels have now set up checkpoints on the highway near Ain Issa, potentially cutting off the U.S. troops in bases to the west, in Manbij and Kobane, from the bulk of the U.S. force further east, Kurdish and U.S. officials said.
[In Syria, U.S. pullout and Turkish assault sparks exodus to anywhere that feels safe ]
Ain Issa is the third town from which U.S. troops have withdrawn since President Trump announced that the U.S. would not stand in the way of a Turkish invasion of northeast Syria aimed at pushing U.S. allied Kurdish-led forces away from the Turkish border. Around 50 troops withdrew on Monday from the border towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, which were the first targets of the Turkish advance.
The highway is also an important conduit for the limited amounts of aid leaving northeast Syria. Aid workers said humanitarian organizations are also in the process of withdrawing staff as the fighting moves deeper into Syria.
Loveluck reported from Irbil, Iraq. Sarah Dadouch in Beirut also contributed
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2019-10-13 11:42:39Z
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