Syria's Assad says 'resistance' will force US troops out
Syrian President Bashar Assad said in remarks broadcast Friday that the American presence in Syria will lead to armed resistance that will eventually force the U.S. troops to leave his country.
Assad spoke in an interview with Russia24 TV and Rossiya Segodnya news agency saying Americans should remember the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that Syria will not be an exception.
U.S. officials said this week that Washington will leave about 600 troops in Syria to fight the Islamic State group.
That followed President Donald Trump's decision last month to withdraw the bulk of roughly 1,000 American troops from Syria, drawing bipartisan condemnation.
Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Trump that he intended to carry out an operation to clear the Turkey-Syria border of Syrian Kurdish fighters who fought side-by-side with U.S. troops in beating back IS fighters in northeast Syria. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters terrorists linked to a Kurdish ...