U.S. Announces Plan to Send 200 More Troops to Raqqa Allegedly to Fight “Deash”

MANAMA- After  relaxing the so-called Arms Export Control Act for Washington-backed armed groups and mercenaries in Syria, the United States has announced plans to send 200 more troops to Syria allegedly to fight Deash terror Organization in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

“I can tell you today that the United States will deploy approximately 200 additional US forces in Syria,” US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told a security conference in the Bahraini capital, Manama, on Saturday.

They will add to 300 American special forces already operating in Syria which has been allegedly fighting foreign-backed militancy for years.

 According to the Syrian news agency SANA, the procedure violates UN legitimacy and international laws.

US President Barack Obama’s administration has supported different kinds of terrorist groups in Syria, including Jabhat al-Nusra. One of al-Nusra commanders, called Abu al-Ezz, admitted last September that the group received Taw rockets from Washington. In addition many US, Turkish, Saudi, Qatari and Israeli officers were available to provide military consultations to the internationally-blacklisted  group.

 Carter claimed that the additional forces “will join local forces in the operation to retake Raqqa from Daesh”.

Syria has strongly criticized the United States for deploying troops to the Syrian soil, saying it amounts to an act of aggression

The new deployment comes at a time of rapidly changing realities on the ground where the Syrian army is tightening the noose around foreign-backed terrorists in Aleppo.

The US and its allies have been pushing for a halt to military operations in the face of Syrian army advances in Syria.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned the US against easing its alleged arms embargo on militants.

Peskov said US weapons could end up in wrong hands if Washington went ahead with the plan to lift restrictions on arms deliveries to the so-called “moderate” militants.

 “Certainly, the worst result of this plan would be those weapons, including MANPADs [man-portable anti-air missiles], ending up in the hands of terrorists,” Peskov said.

Last year, Washington earmarked almost $500 million to arming and training the so-called “moderates.” It had also slackened its arms embargo against certain militants back in 2013.

Hamda Mustafa