The US military destroyed its own anti-ISIS headquarters in Syria on the same day the House overwhelming rebuked President Trump’s decision to abandon the area.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Turkish-backed troops advanced on the facility, which had been used to equip and train SDF fighters against ISIS, on Tuesday, leading US officials to quickly withdraw US troops and destroy the base today.
As the Turkish-back fighters moved closer, US troops attempted to repel them, using F-15s and Apache helicopters as a show of force to warn them away while US troops were still there.
But, the airpower failed to dissuade the Turkish-backed forces; SDF fighters fled and set fire to their part of the base, and US troops left before US assets destroyed the base.
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran, was livid at the news, tweeting, “Is this the America you grew up believing in?”
Wow. We bombed our own base on purpose, because of the impulsive decision by @realDonaldTrump didn’t leave time to evacuate the right way. Is this the America you grew up believing in? pic.twitter.com/r7l2l80wLZ
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) October 17, 2019
Last Friday, Turkish forces fired at an American position in Syria; while no casualties were sustained it came after reassurances from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley that Turkey knew where US troops were stationed.
An officer familiar with the situation told The Washington Post that the incident was likely not accidental, as Turkish forces were aware of the US position, and had been for months.
“#Coalition forces continue a deliberate withdrawal from northeast #Syria. On Oct. 16, we vacated the Lafarge Cement Factory, Raqqa, and Tabqah,” Col. Myles. B. Caggins, a spokesperson for the US-led coalition to defeat ISIS, tweeted Wednesday, referring to the base, the LaFarge Cement Factory, on which US forces carried out strikes.
Kinzinger on Sunday said that troops who were stationed at the Turkey-Syria border would have prevented the advancement of Turkish forces.
“We all know that if there were still those … soldiers, Turkey wouldn’t attack,” he said in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“To see this yet again, leaving an ally behind, abandoning people that we told that we were going to be with is disheartening, depressing, frankly it’s weak,” he added. “I don’t see how it follows through on the president’s biggest promise in the campaign to defeat ISIS, because I think it’s going to resurge.”
The New York Times has reported that ISIS has claimed responsibility for at least two attacks since the fighting began last week.
A Kurdish leader previously said in an op-ed that the U.S. had “betrayed” the Kurds and that forces guarding ISIS prisoners would need to be “redirected” to combat the Turkish military.
The House today approved a resolution formally rebuking Trump over his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria.
The measure passed in an overwhelming 354-60 vote.
The top three House Republicans supported the motion in a rare split from Trump.
An estimated 50 US nuclear bombs are effectively being held hostage in Turkey as Trump attempts to find a diplomatic way of responding to the country’s invasion of Syria.
The rapid pace of withdrawal and the tumultuous decline of relations between the two countries has left administration officials scrambling to find a plan for the nuclear weapons stored under American control at the shared Incirlik Air Base in south east Turkey.