Expanding American forces' mission east Syria

NEWS DESK

The Arab newspapers issued on Thursday morning touched upon the last battle against IS in al-Baguz and the American presence in Syria.

Al-Hayat: 6500 people exited al-Baguz among them hundreds of IS' fighters

On the Syrian issue, al-Hayat newspaper tackled the latest developments of the battles against IS in al-Baguz, and it said, "In conjunction with a cautious calm witnessed on the axes of the clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and IS organization's gunmen who are besieged in the hamlets of al-Baguz town, the last enclave of the extremist organization east of the Euphrates, a military source in SDF, backed by the International Coalition assured the liberation of five members of the forces from IS' hands in a special operation in addition to eleven Yazidi children who were kidnapped by the organization from Iraq, and transferred to Syria."

A spokesman for SDF said that 6,500 people had left al-Bagoz within the last 24 hours, including some 400 IS' fighters who had preferred to surrender and not to continue fighting. The field commander in SDF Adnan Afrin denied that there was any deal held with IS. He pointed out that IS' gunmen are subjected to inspection and then transferred to special detention centers, while the families of IS and the civilians are transferred to al-Hol camp in al-Hasakah after checking their identities. Another military source stated that 2,000 people had left al-Baguz through a safe corridor opened by SDF and that they slowed down the pace of their attack to allow more civilians to leave.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the number of the people who departed al-Baguz since the beginning of the fighting to end the last bastion of IS in al-Baguz before 95 days reached about 58,000 including more than 6,000 armed.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat: Trump agrees to expand the task of his forces east of Syria

Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper addressed the American presence and said, "A message issued from the members of the American Congress revealed that Washington has added a new mission to the US and European forces that are going to remain in eastern Syria after the end of IS organization to prevent a conflict between Washington's Kurdish allies on the one hand and Ankara on the other hand."

The massage signed and approved by the US President Donald Trump said that the Western presence aims at helping to prevent breaking out a conflict between Turkey; its ally in NATO, and SDF that fought IS.

Furthermore, US sources said that the meeting between the US Army Chief of Staff Joseph Dunford and his Russian counterpart Valery Gerasimov in Vienna on Monday did not achieve an agreement on specific American requests from the Russian side, including "a pledge by Russia that the Syrian regime forces would not attack SDF after the end of the battles against IS."