Vulnerable American troops stationed along Syria’s volatile northern border could be outgunned following an alleged chemical attack that’s skyrocketed tensions between President Trump and Russia, warned U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch.
The alarm comes as French and British officials joined Trump’s call to respond “forcefully” to the chemical attacks and Kremlin officials also increased their saber-rattling.
“It’s a real soup of things that could go wrong, and I’m just worried about the capacity of our people to defend themselves,” said Lynch, the ranking Democrat on the House national security subcommittee.
The U.S. currently has 2,000 troops in Syria, originally sent there to target Islamic State fighters. But a group of U.S. troops helping Kurdish allies between Aleppo and the city of Manbij is surrounded by 20 to 30 well-armed hostile militias, Lynch said.
Donald Trump yesterday canceled a planned trip to Latin America so he could “oversee the American response to Syria,” said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.