Syria Has Evidence That United States Training Terrorists At Al-Tanf Military Base - Assad

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th March, 2023) The Syrian leadership has evidence that the United States is training terrorists on the territory of the Al-Tanf military base, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview with Sputnik.

Sputnik was the first international news agency to interview the Syrian president right after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday.

"We have direct encounters with terrorist groups near the Al-Tanf area, and of course, we know from these encounters and from detainees where they came from. Al-Tanf represents an entire terrorist camp, and it has no other goal. What does the US get out of its presence in this area in the heart of the desert? No doubt that they have camps for terrorists that house tens of thousands with their families," Assad said.

From time to time, the US send these people "to carry out terrorist attacks against the Syrian army to disperse the units in different directions," the president said.

"We are sure of this, the evidence is actually there," Assad added.

Al-Tanf is a small outpost in southeastern Syria along the Baghdad-Damascus highway. US troops have used the base for counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia) and to train Syrian fighters since at least 2016.