"It turns out that the Pentagon is deliberately deceiving the international and US public, including the supreme commander-in-chief, or there are no more grounds and even formal pretexts for the US troops’ presence in Syria," Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Friday, a state news agency reported.
Moscow maintained that recent US statements by President Donald Trump of having "won" in Syria and Iraq means the United States and its 70-nation coalition to defeat ISIS should leave Syria.
“We’ve won in Syria, we’ve won in Iraq, but they spread to other areas and we’re getting them as fast as they spread,” Trump said Tuesday during a ceremony to sign defense policy legislation.
TASS news agency reported Konashenkov "expressed bewilderment" over the US Department of Defense's statement that the US-led coalition will remain in Syria until the full defeat of ISIS.
"The Pentagon’s representatives’ conclusions on the withdrawal or non-withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria show not only their ill-concealed wishes that we should not be there but also that the US does not have real information on what is happening on the ground," Konashenkov said.
US Army Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesperson for the global coalition, said that Russia is the one that is mistaken about the reality on the ground in Syria.
Noting that Russia recently announced the liberation of Syria from ISIS, Dillon told Rudaw TV on Friday, “Clearly that is not the case.”
Within the past two days, the coalition has killed 20 ISIS fighters and captured the same amount.
“We know that there still is fighting, there still are ISIS elements, and they are in large parts in those areas that are supposedly liberated by Russians and the regime,” Dillon said, adding that the coalition is “serious” about defeating the group while others “maybe they say things, but… don’t back it up.”
The coalition’s focus now is to keep the pressure on ISIS, which is no longer able to fight as a conventional force but are smaller cells on the run, Dillon explained, and to ensure the group cannot return to areas that have already been liberated where the coalition is building up local security forces.
A lot of work has been done, but a lot of work remains, Dillon explained. “ISIS has proven very adaptive over the course of the last three years.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited an air base in Syria for a victory speech and to announce it would start to withdraw troops from Syria on Monday. After his visit, the Russian spokesman said "US TV channels" don't show Russian provisions being withdrawn, then that's also "the Pentagon's problem."
In a December 6 statement, the Pentagon said it had 2,000 troops in Syria "and those numbers are trending down."
“The campaign to defeat ISIS is now in a new phase in Iraq and Syria,” Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Robert Manning said.
Both the United States and Russia have expressed their missions in Syria are to eliminate “terrorism.”
Putin has until now saved the Assad regime through his 2015 military intervention. Russia's mandate in Syria is at the invitation of Assad.
The UN Security Council has not passed a resolution that directly gives the United States a mandate in Syria; however, the US-led coalition claims its presence is condoned by the United Nations' Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
A statement on the coalition's website reads: "As noted in UN Security Council Resolution 2170, “terrorism can only be defeated by a sustained and comprehensive approach involving the active participation and collaboration of all States… which is why our first priority is to encourage others to join in this important endeavor.”
The United States itself has financially sanctioned the Assad's Baathist regime leaders as well as his allies, and has additionally supported several UN resolutions to sanction Assad for alleged chemical gas attacks and forced displacements, which Russia has effectively vetoed through the Security Council.
The Syrian civil war began in 2011 with rebels trying to overthrow the Assad regime.
The United States announced it formally ended a covert program supporting Syrian rebels against the regime this summer.
The US-led coalition now has supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against ISIS mostly in northern and eastern Syria on the upper banks of the Euphrates.
