US deploys Bradley armored vehicles to Syria after dustups with Russia’s troops

The United States previously deployed armored vehicles to eastern Syria in October 2019, after the coalition hastily pulled back across Syria’s northeast to consolidate around prized oilfields in a truncated area of operations.

The move also saw some 1,400 US troops eventually leave Syria, according to official numbers.

The retreat was precipitated by a phone call between President Donald Trump and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after which US forces were ordered to stand aside as Ankara’s military and its Syrian proxy forces attacked the Kurdish-led militias that had borne the brunt of the US-led coalition’s war to defeat the Islamic State.

Russian and Syrian government forces rapidly moved into the area, on the east side of the Euphrates River, to fill the void left by the Americans last year.

Since then, US military officials have remained to “guard the oil,” in Trump’s words.

Long coveted by the Bashar al-Assad regime and Russia, the oilfields in Deir ez-Zor and Syria’s northeast are a valuable revenue source for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, and a major bargaining chip in store for potential future negotiations over their reintegration into a unified Syria.

Since the coalition’s consolidation, deconflicting with the Russians has become far more complex, US officials have said.

In June, Russian forces reportedly attempted to set up an outpost in Derik, not far from a main US supply line into the autonomous Syrian region.

Last month, a Syrian fighter was reportedly killed when a firefight broke out between a Syrian pro-regime checkpoint and a US patrol.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have cautiously courted Russia, seeking assurances of their survival in case the Americans leave Syria.

Likely seeking to appease Turkey — which accuses the SDF of being led by Kurdistan Workers Party terrorists — the United States has not overtly pushed to include northeast Syria’s autonomous administration in the Geneva talks to resolve Syria’s conflict.

Meanwhile, US-led coalition soldiers are left guarding oilfields as the State Department leads Washington’s long-haul Syria policy with corrosive economic sanctions targeting the Assad regime and its affiliates.