US Sets Up Third Base in NE Syria

Base is near Qamishli, Hasakeh

The US is reportedly growing its military presence in Syria this weekend, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying they have set up a third military base in northeastern Hasakeh Province.

The latest base is just 3 km from Qamishli, a Kurdish SDF city which also hosted a Syrian air force site in recent years. All three bases are in or near SDF territory.

The main US base in Hasakeh is at al-Omar, one of Syria’s oil fields. The site was established during the Trump Administration with designs on taking all of the oil. The US is aligned with the SDF, but keeps at a distance with Turkey intermittently invading Syria to attack the Kurds.

While US interest in Syria is overwhelmingly along the Iraq border in the far east, the US also has a base in al-Tanf, near the three-way border between Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.That base is used to support rebels on Jordan’s border.

These new bases speak to growing US interest in maintaining a presence in Syria, even though the Syrian Civil War is practically over. The

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.