YPG, Assad regime hold talks after US pullout: Report

By Adham Kako</p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – The YPG/PKK terror group and Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime held talks, following the U.S. decision to withdraw from Syria, a London-based rights group claimed on Thursday.</p> <p>Syrian Observatory for Human Rights wrote on its website that YPG/PKK terror group leaders and senior officials of the Syrian regime met in Al-Hasakah's Qamishli city near Turkish border.</p> <p>In the meeting, the matters pertaining to handing over oilfields — occupied by the terror group — in eastern province of Deir ez-Zour to the Syrian regime, Turkey's planned military operation east of the Euphrates River and the U.S withdrawal were discussed.</p> <p>Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a counter-terrorism operation could begin &quot;at any moment&quot; east of the Euphrates River, stressing that Turkey would never allow a “terror corridor” to be established along its border.</p> <p>On Wednesday, the Pentagon said the U.S. withdrawal had already begun, but added that it would continue to work with its &quot;local partners.&quot;</p> <p>After driving Daesh from Syria’s Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor provinces last year, the U.S. has stepped up efforts to build military bases throughout the country.</p> <p>The U.S. currently operates 15 bases in Al-Hasakah, Raqqa, Manbij and Deir ez-Zour, while two more are currently under construction near Deir ez-Zour’s Hajin district (close to the Al-Omar oil facility) and near Al-Hasakah's Qamishli city.</p> <p>Notably, in late November, the U.S. army fortified areas of northern Syria along the roughly 100-kilometer border with Turkey's southern Sanliurfa province.</p> <p>In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women and children. The YPG is its Syrian branch.</p> <p>Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>- US troops in Syria set to return home</p> <p>Separately, the U.S. media claimed on Wednesday that the country has been planning to withdraw its 2,000 troops from Syria.</p> <p>&quot;We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,&quot; the U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday.</p> <p>&quot;We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next steps of this campaign,&quot; White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.</p> <p>Reports have suggested all State Department personnel would depart Syria within the next 24 hours while U.S. forces will leave within 60 to 100 days.</p> <p>The withdrawal comes on the eve of a possible Turkish military operation in northeastern Syria against the YPG/PKK terrorist group. Since 2016, Ankara has carried out two similar military operations in northern Syria.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the terror group members held protest demonstrations against the U.S. decision in Manbij, Tal Barak and Tal Tamir towns in northeastern Al-Hasakah province and near a US base located in northeast of Raqqah.