UAE to Put Special Forces in Syria: US Defense Minister
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has agreed to send Special Forces soldiers to Syria to reportedly fight the ISIL terrorist group.
Carter made the comment after meeting Friday at his Brussels hotel with his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, AP reported.
He claimed that the forces would be part of an effort led by the United States and bolstered by Saudi Special Forces to train and enable local Arab fighters who are motivated to recapture Raqqa.
Carter also told reporters that however the proposed suspension of Syrian civil war hostilities is implemented, as announced in Munich, the US will continue combating ISIL in Syria.
Diplomats meeting in Munich, Germany, fell short early Friday in organizing a truce in the Syrian civil war but agreed to try to work out details and implement a temporary "cessation of hostilities" in a week's time.
The foreign ministers from the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) managed to seal an agreement to "accelerate and expand" deliveries of humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian communities beginning this week.
US and Russia are to lead a working group meeting Friday to work out aid delivery details.
Syria’s main opposition group welcomed the plan reached at the meeting, saying it should prove to be effective before it joins the talks that are expected to resume later this month.
A new report by the so-called Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR) has put the number of fatalities caused directly and indirectly by the foreign-backed militancy in Syria at 470,000.
The NGO says the figure is far higher than that of the UN - 260,000 - because the world body stopped collecting statistics 18 months ago.
The report also estimates that in all 11.5 percent of Syria’s population have been killed or injured since the crisis erupted in March 2011.
