Russia accuses US of training ex-Daesh militants in Syria

Russia’s military Chief of Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, yesterday accused the United States of training former Daesh fighters at Syria’s southern military base of Al-Tanf.

Speaking in an interview with Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, Gerasimov said that the US base, which is located in a strategic Syrian highway border crossing with Iraq, is “illegal”, adding that the area surrounding it has become “a black hole where militants operate unhindered”.

“The US forces have effectively turned their military base near the town of Al-Tanf in south-eastern Syria into a terrorists’ training camp,” he said.

“According to satellite and other surveillance data, terrorist squads are stationed there,” Gerasimov noted. “They are effectively training there.”

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The Russian military official reiterated that the US-backed Daesh militants’ training aims at “destabilising the situation in Syria”.

 The US has repeatedly stressed that it has been using Al-Tanf facility to train partner forces to fight against Daesh. It has also rejected similar Russian allegations in the past, claiming that Washington remains committed “to killing off Daesh fighters and denying it safe havens”.

But Gerasimov stressed that the US has also been using a refugee camp in Syria’s north-eastern town of Al-Shaddadah, in Al-Hasakah province, to train a number of militants and former Daesh remnants including those who fled Raqqa.

“This is essentially Daesh,” the Russian chief stressed. “They changed their colours and acquired different names.”

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“At the moment, there are about 750 militants in Al-Shaddadah and 350 in Al-Tanf on the Syrian-Jordanian border,” he noted.

“Some 400 militants left Al-Shaddadah for Al-Tanf, launching an offensive on the Syrian forces from the eastern bank of the Euphrates, after the main ISIS [Daesh] forces were routed there,” Gerasimov added.

The official also pointed out that Russian satellites and drones had spotted militant brigades at the US base.

“The most important thing is that we have been seeing the militants advancing from there for several months,” he said.