Pres. Trump: 'If Russia wants to get involved with Syria, that's really up to them. They have a problem with Turkey, they have a problem at a border that's not our border, we shouldn't be losing lives over it.'
For over four years, the U.S. armed and fought with Syrian Kurdish forces who served as America's foot soldiers against the Islamic State terror group. But with President Donald Trump pulling American troops out of Syria, those Kurdish forces announced on Sunday that they have a new partner: Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
That leaves just one pocket of opposition-held territory in the country's northwest, which Assad has moved in recent months to conquer militarily, with air power from his sponsor Russia. But Turkey has troops stationed there as it backs opposition groups, including some with ties to al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups -- setting up a showdown of Turkish and opposition forces against Syrian and now Kurdish forces.
But last December, after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump ordered all U.S. forces out of Syria. That sudden decision led to the resignation of his Defense Secretary James Mattis and special envoy for ISIS Brett McGurk, although eventually it was slowed down as U.S. officials said they wanted to ensure it was a safe and deliberate process.
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