Withdrawing US Troops Destroy Own Airfield, Equipment in Northern Syria to Avoid Embarrassing Video

The airfield in Syria’s Hasaka province, located at the Turkish border, was capable of accepting large military transport planes and helicopters, SANA news agency reported. It was completely destroyed after the US contingent had been withdrawn.

The Americans blew the airstrip up in an apparent move to prevent the Syrian army from using the facility. The Syrian Army had earlier entered Tel Tamar, according to Damascus, just as the US troops were withdrawing.

The Americans have also reportedly blown up a radar on Mount Abdulaziz as well as some of their facilities in Hasaka, before heading out towards the Syrian border with Iraq.

Several days ago, forces of the US-led coalition destroyed their military base near Syria’s city Ein Al-Arab, also known as Kobani, likely to prevent more embarrassing videos of the abandoned facility once it is reclaimed by the Syrian government troops.

Curiously, the scorched earth policy on abandoned bases was not initially applied by the leaving American troops. Some were left almost intact, raising speculations that the troops fled in a great hurry and providing for embarrassing videos.

In recent days several hundred US troops have fled Northeast Syria into Iraq, as Washington had declared that up to 1,000 American troops would be withdrawn from Northern part of the war-torn country because of the increasing danger posed by the fighting.

US-Led Coalition Forces Out of Raqqa, American Warplanes Bomb Own Base in Syriahttps://t.co/fKTcwpALUd pic.twitter.com/ikAn6EWUcj— Fars News Agency (@EnglishFars) October 17, 2019

Apart from it, SANA reported, US troops are about to be evacuated from the Life Stone base near a dam on the Euphrates in the Hasakah province as part of Washington’s decision to withdraw troops from Northeast Syria.

According to the news agency, a group of trucks crossed on Sunday the Iraqi-Syrian border to evacuate US troops from the Northern part of Syria. The group of transport trucks, accompanied by military vehicles, is heading for the Syrian city of Qamishli to complete the evacuation of US bases from Syria.

The United States has fully pulled it servicemen back from its compounds in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo and Raqqa after President Donald Trump declared that American troops stationed in the war-ravaged country would be returning home.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has stated that US forces withdrawing from Northern Syria will be relocated to Western Iraq, adding that he would not rule out the possibility that the American troops could conduct cross-border missions into Syria from their new home in Iraq.

Explaining his decision to pull US troops out of Syria, Trump argued earlier this month that it was “time to bring our soldiers back home” – but it now appears that this won’t be happening any time soon.

The US and its allies invaded Syria in 2014 under the pretext of fighting terrorism, without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate. Damascus has repeatedly accused Washington of carrying out an illegal occupation of its sovereign territory.

Damascus government has reiterated that any foreign troops in Syria is regarded as an occupying force and the Syrian government has the right to take all the needed measures to confront it.

In recent years, several reports have revealed that Takfiri terrorist groups are being provided with advanced weapons and huge amounts of cash by the former and current US administration in Syria for the now-disappeared “Assad Must Go” aim.

Also, according to the reports, the US-led coalition has for several times airlifted to a safe sanctuary commanders of the ISIL terror group from the regions, where Syrian government forces and fighters were tightening the noose around the militants.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad has for several times stressed that “every inch” of the Syrian territory will be liberated from terrorists.