US to withdraw assistance from northwest Syria - US officials

The Trump administration will withdraw assistance from northwest Syria dominated by militant factions and focus recovery efforts on areas where US-led forces have retaken territory from Daesh in the northeast, US officials with knowledge of the decision have said.

CBS, which first reported the story, said tens of millions of dollars will be cut from previous US-backed efforts in the northwest, including projects for "countering violent extremism, supporting independent society and independent media, strengthening education, and advocating for community policing."

US officials told Reuters that humanitarian assistance would not be affected in the northwest around Idlib province.

"US assistance for programmes in northwest Syria are being freed up to provide potential increased support for priorities in northeast Syria," a State Department official told Reuters.

A second official said the administration believed it wanted to move the assistance to areas where the US had more control.

President Donald Trump in March froze more than $200 million in funds for recovery efforts in Syria while his administration reassesses Washington's role in the Syrian conflict. 

The review is still under way, one US official said.

Trump said in March that it was time for the United States to leave Syria, following allied victories against the Daesh terror group. About 2,000 US troops are deployed in Syria.

In April, however, Trump deepened US involvement by ordering missile strikes against Syria in response to a poison gas attack that killed dozens of people.

A third US official said the cuts in the northwest would take place over a period of months.

"The danger is a repeat of what the president criticised about Iraq - leaving a vacuum where the violence can get worse and extremists can exploit that," the official added.

The Pentagon has estimated that Daesh has lost about 98 percent of the territory it held in Iraq and Syria, US military officials have warned that the militants could regain the freed areas quickly unless they are stabilised.

TRT World's Oubai Shahbandar has more details.

French support to YPG?

French special forces have established six artillery batteries in a terror group YPG/PKK-held area near Syria’s border with Iraq, Anadolu Agency reported quoting local sources. 

The sources said French troops, which support the terror group in Syria, have established artillery batteries in the north of Baguz village of Deir Ezzor province. They also fired some shots, added the sources. 

French troops have recently increased their presence in some YPG/PKK-held areas in Syria, including Manbij, Al Hasakah, Ayn Issa and Raqqa.

In March, leaders of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - which is, in fact, the Syrian branch of the PKK terror group - met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. 

French media outlets later reported that France had promised to send troops to Syria’s northern Manbij region with the aim of supporting the SDF. 

Listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU, the PKK has waged a wide-ranging terror campaign against the Turkish state since the mid-1980s, in which an estimated 40,000 people have been killed.