2:50 p.m. ET, October 28, 2019
Pentagon says US forces will maintain presence in Syria to protect oil fields from ISIS
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said today that the US military will maintain a presence in Syria for the time being following the Baghdadi raid in order to protect oil fields from being seized by ISIS fighters.
Asked if this will mean the number of US troops will increase in Syria, Esper responded, "At the end of the day, we will be sending troops home."
"The President made a commitment to do that. But in the meantime, we're going to make some other moves to ensure that we can accomplish that mission of securing the oil fields in order to deny them access to ISIS," Esper said.
Asked to clarify if he means that the number of US troops in Syria will go up in order to run the operation to protect the oil, Esper responded, "No, no, no, at the end of the day, my expectation is it will be fewer than we have before."
Pressed by CNN's Barbara Starr on whether the US will also prevent any Russian or Syrian forces from gaining access to the oil, Esper said, “The short answer is yes, it presently does. Because in that case, we want to make sure that SDF does have access to the resources in order to guard the prisons, in order to arm their own troops, in order to assist us with the defeat-ISIS missions. So that’s our mission, is to secure the oil fields.”