Alwaght- With the collapse of Bashar al-Assad government in Syria, the prediction of the country sinking again in security, political, and social instability and crisis is coming true. As with the start of crisis in 2011 the way was paved for presence of foreign occupation forces, now and with the new developments and shaky central government, the outlook of foreign occupation of Syrian territory and even partition of the country is becoming clear.
Meanwhile, the US as a party with interests in Syrian developments with military presence in this country is seizing the opportunity to solidify its military presence.
Accordingly, field reports from local sources indicate that in recent weeks, soldiers and numerous convoys of military and logistical equipment and construction materials have been transported by US-flagged trucks from Iraq and northeastern Syria to Raqqa and areas west of the Euphrates, such as Kobani, which appear to be for the construction of new bases.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is among the sources that confirmed in a report that “US forces have sent a convoy of 50 trucks carrying prefabricated rooms, surveillance cameras, cement blocks, fuel tanks and drilling machinery to Kobani, and then more military reinforcements such as soldiers, weapons, armored vehicles, radars and anti-aircraft weapons are being sent.”
The monitoring body's activists witnessed the convoy on the Hasakah-Raqqa highway, heading to Kobani area in the eastern suburbs of Aleppo, accompanied by a military escort of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) vehicles.
The Pentagon has declined to respond to questions about these convoys and only generally stressed that the US presence in Syria will continue under the mission of the so-called anti-ISIS international coalition.
The Pentagon this week, however, responded to a question about transfer of construction materials to Kobani for support of the Kurdish-majority SDF as its allies to check Turkish attacks. Ankara labels Kurds its main enemies.
“We remain focused on our mission to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said. “But when it comes to US forces in Kobani, there are no plans or intentions to determine that at this time.”
Although Singh emphasized that there are no plans to build a new base in Kobani or elsewhere, the US military's history shows that the country's military has a collection of facilities under various names around the world that house thousands of troops and military assets that are not necessarily identified by the US military as military bases.
Furthermore, while there are no exact figures on the number of US troops on Iraqi and Syrian soil, it is estimated that there are now 2,000 US troops in Syria, a number that is much higher than the 900 troops it announced in December.
In October 2019, when the US military evacuated its military base in Kobani region, it announced that it had bombed the remaining facilities at the base with two F-15 fighter jets to prevent it from falling into the hands of Russian and Syrian forces.
The facility is located along the highly strategic M4 highway, which was of great economic and logistical importance during the war, connecting Aleppo to the port city of Latakia.
After the US withdrawal, Russian forces took control of the facility and remained there until al-Assad was overthrown.
It is not yet clear whether the new equipment and facilities sent by the US military have been sent to Kobani to rebuild the base. However, various reasons and motivations for increasing Washington's military presence in northern Syria can be cited:
First, the construction of a base in this northern Syrian city on the border with Turkey comes as fighting between SDF and Turkish-backed militias has intensified.
Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, described the military upgrade as a not-so-subtle message to various actors in Syria to take a cautious approach towards the SDF and its vast and economically important territory.
While Turkey has been vehemently threatening to prepare for a major military operation in northern Syria, Landis said that this was a signal to Turkey and the Arab forces that they should not attack the Rojava region.”
So the construction of the new military base is primarily a protective step by Washington against Ankara’s threats against Kurdish-held areas, and that the future state of relations between the Kurds and the new government is something that should be determined through negotiations, not war.
In this regard, the media recently reported on a meeting between Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Tahrir al-Sham group that toppled al-Assad, and Mazloum Kobani, the leader of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, with the mediation of the US, while no official news about the content and outcome of the talks has been leaked to the media.
Turkey labels the YPG , which accounts for a majority of the SDF, a "terrorist organization."
The SDF currently control a large part of northeastern Syria, roughly a third of the country’s total territory. The land they control includes about 70 percent of Syria’s oil and gas fields.
In 2019, then-US President Donald Trump spoke bluntly about the need to control Syria’s oil and gas resources, saying at a White House news conference alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that “the US has left troops there just for the oil.”
Many believe that, despite the US’s plunder of Syria’s oil over the years, maintaining control of these resources will provide Washington with significant leverage in negotiations with the new rulers of Damascus and influence the course of Syria’s future.
“Sanctions and oil are great bargaining chips,” Landis said.
Second, Washington may seek to sway the behavior and policies of the new Syrian government with US enemies such as Iran and its regional allies, especially the Israeli regime, which immediately seized large parts of Syrian territory beyond the occupied Golan Heights with the fall of al-Assad and has no intention of withdrawing from these areas.
Israel’s interests lie in keeping Syria as weak, divided, and impoverished as possible, and to try to ensure a long-term US presence in the Arab country.
Trump’s own policy as president is somewhat complex and unpredictable. In early December, he wrote in his usual vague style on his social media site Truth Social that Syria is “not our fight.”
This stance seems to be in line with the America First slogan of reducing the burden of US military responsibilities and costs in NATO and elsewhere. However, a look at the positions of key foreign policy decision-makers in the new administration shows a continued interest in a military presence in Syria.
Figures such as Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, have already strongly criticized Turkey’s military operations against the SDF and stressed that Washington should maintain its military presence in Syria.
On the other hand, the increase in US military activity in Syria coincided with the terrorist attack in New Orleans, which the FBI attributed to ISIS— an event that may strengthen the position of supporters of the need to continue the international coalition's mission to fight ISIS in Syria, especially since a large part of the prisons holding ISIS members are under the control of Syrian Kurdish militias.
Where are the US military bases in West Asia?
The US has been operating military bases in West Asia and North Africa for decades. At their peak, there were over 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan in 2011 and over 160,000 in Iraq in 2007.
While this number has been greatly reduced since the US military’s ignominious withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, estimates suggest that there are still around 30,000 American troops scattered throughout the region. In addition, since the start of the Israeli invasion of Gaza in October 2023, Washington has temporarily deployed thousands of additional troops to the region.
The largest US base in West Asia is located in Qatar, known as Al-Udeid Air Base, built in 1996. Other countries where the US has military presence include Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Iraq.
Despite a parliamentary bill calling for official US withdrawal from Iraq, Pentagon still holds about 2,500 forces in Iraq.
These bases have extensive protection equipment, including air defense systems to protect against missiles and drones.
However, the US forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked repeatedly. Since October 7, 2023, they were attacked over 160 times by regional resistance forces.
