US intensifies bombing in Syria after Trump announced withdrawal
US military escalates bombardment of ISIL-held areas in eastern Syria after President Trump announced troop pull-out.
by Ali Younes & Trevor Aaronson
After President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of 2,000 troops from Syria last month, the US military ramped up its bombing campaign against territory still held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the eastern part of the country, according to sources on the ground and photographs obtained in a joint investigation by Al Jazeera and The Intercept.
The fiercest attacks in the past week occurred in Al Kashmah, a village on the Euphrates River near the border with Iraq, according to three sources in eastern Syria. Amid US air attacks and artillery fire by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), civilians and family members of ISIL fighters fled to villages to the south, the sources said. While Al Kashmah has not yet fallen, the only people remaining there are fighters representing what has become the front line of the war against ISIL in Deir Az Zor province.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/intensifies-bombing-syria-trump-announced-withdrawal-190103083014951.html
