The US military base in al-Tanf protected by a “human shield” consisting of Syrian refugees has turned into a “black hole” on the Syrian-Jordanian state border from where mobile groups of the Islamic State (IS, terror group, outlawed in Russia) carry out sabotage and terror attacks, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said on Friday.
“The Pentagon’s representatives have repeatedly stated that instructors from the US, the UK and Norway staying there under the cover of tactical aviation and multiple-launch rocket systems are training New Syrian Army militants. However, in actual fact, al-Tanf has turned into a 100-kilometer ‘black hole’ on the Syrian-Jordanian state border. Instead of the New Syrian Army, mobile ISIL groups, like a jack in the box, carry out sabotage and terrorist attacks against Syrian troops and civilians from there,” he said.
Konashenkov noted that the illegal deployment of this military base to the Syrian-Jordanian border in April 2017 was publicly justified “by the need to conduct operations against ISIL.” However, no information has been received about any US operations against the Islamic State during the six months of its existence.
He noted that the largest Rukban refugee camp accommodating more than 60,000 women and children from Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor is located in the “safe zone” close to the base. “Today refugees from Rukban are actually the hostages, to be more precise, a “human shield” for the US base. A reminder that, in addition to the Americans, such ‘protective’ barriers are used in Syria only by those whom they came to fight there, that is, terrorists,” Konashenkov stressed.