France to stay in Syria after US troops ordered home, minister says
France will maintain its participation in the coalition fighting Daesh terrorist group in Syria, a government minister said Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump surprised Washington’s allies by ordering American troops home.
“For now of course we remain in Syria,” France’s European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said on CNews television, adding “the fight against terrorism is not over.”
“It’s true that the coalition has made significant progress in Syria, but this fight continues, and we will continue it,” she said.
France has stationed fighter jets in Jordan and artillery along the Syrian border in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition, as well as an undisclosed number of special forces on the ground.
On Wednesday Trump said in a Twitter video that “We’ve won against ISIS,” an English acronym for Daesh, and that it was time to bring the roughly 2,000 U.S. soldiers fighting the terrorists home.
Its allies have warned the U.S. that despite losing most of the territory it once controlled during the bloody Syrian civil war, the Daesh threat has not been totally eradicated.
French Defence Minister Florence Parly said on Twitter on Thursday that the group “has not been wiped of the map, nor have its roots.”
“We must definitively defeat the last pockets of this terrorist organisation,” she said.
Source: AFP
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Musah Inuwa is the founding editor at Fernil News, born and raised in Ghana, founded fernilnews.net in 2015. He writes on international relations, special events, and humanitarian issues. His choice of journalism as a career stems from his passion for telling people's stories and writing to inspire or make a difference.