The US defence secretary has confirmed “mechanised forces” will be redeployed alongside soldiers to protect oilfields in eastern Syria, in a reversal of Donald Trump’s earlier order to withdraw all troops from the country, The Guardian reports.
Mark Esper told a press conference at Nato headquarters in Brussels that “we are reinforcing our position” in Syria that “will include some mechanised forces”, although he tried to insist the US mission in the country was unchanged.
The goal, he added, was to deny Isis access to the oilfields in north-east Syria, but he would not say how many US troops would remain other than to indicate the number would be fewer than 1,000.
