His comments were the first to specifically lay out where American troops will go as they shift from Syria and what the counter-IS fight could look like. Esper, who flew overnight to Afghanistan, said he has spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to shift about 1,000 troops leaving Syria into western Iraq. The developments made clear that one of President Donald Trump’s rationales for withdrawing troops from Syria was not going to come to pass any time soon. Reports of sporadic clashes continued between Turkish-backed fighters and the U.S.-allied Syria Kurdish forces despite a five-day cease-fire agreement hammered out Thursday between U.S. and Turkish leaders. While he acknowledged reports of intermittent fighting despite the cease-fire agreement, he said that overall it “generally seems to be holding.

Source: thestar October 20, 2019 12:56 UTC