US military abandons two bases in Syria
The US military has abandoned two bases in north-eastern Syria and is moving towards Iraq, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reports, citing a correspondent in the region.
According to the agency, about 40 trucks left the Khorab Jayr base in Syria’s al-Hasakah province. Another 50 trucks departed from the base in the city of Shaddadi. SANA reports that they are moving towards the Al Waleed border crossing on the border with Iraq.
On January 8, Iran attacked US bases in Iraq. According to the Iranian TV channel Press TV, there were 80 casualties. The Iraqi Defense Ministry reported that there were no casualties in the Iraqi military.
Tehran called the attack a response to the targeted killing of major general Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Al Quds division of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, who died on January 3 in a US airstrike. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that, after the death of Soleimani, the US military can no longer be based in the region, and that “America’s subversive presence in the region must come to an end”.