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El gráfico muestra un informe de situación en Siria e Irak.
GN39820ES

EJÉRCITOS

Vacío de poder Siria-Irak

By Duncan Mil

December 23, 2019 - EUA, Rusia, Turquía, agentes iraníes y fuerzas gubernamentales sirias compiten por el control del territorio una vez dominado por el llamado Estado Islámico (EI), mientras el grupo terrorista se reestructura en Irak

Since October 6 when U.S. President Donald Trump ordered American troops to withdraw from northeastern Syria, ending U.S. support for Kurdish allies -- the 85,000-strong Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) -- Moscow and Ankara have rapidly moved to fill the power vacuum. Three days later, Turkey invaded northeastern Syria, occupying land liberated from Islamic State control by the SDF, forcing some 200,000 people from their homes.

A Russian-Turkish cease-fire deal resulted in joint patrols, seeking to take over areas abandoned by U.S. forces, while Syria’s parliament approved two oil exploration contracts with Russian firms, Mercury, and Velada.

Russia has also opened recruitment centres in the northeastern Syrian towns of Amuda and Tal Tamr to build an allied force with SDF fighters abandoned by Washington.

And now, a report by Kurdish intelligence officials in Iraq estimate that IS has regrouped and is about 10,000 strong with between 4,000 and 5,000 fighters, and a similar number of sleeper cells and sympathisers.

According to Lahur Talabany, a Kurdish counter-terrorism official, the militants have spent the past 12 months rebuilding its so-called Caliphate from the caves of Iraq’s Hamrin Mountains.

Kurdish Peshmerga commander Major General Sirwan Barzani told the BBC that IS now controls a vast area of no man’s land in northern Iraq.

“In the delta between the Great Zab and Tigris rivers we can say they are permanently there,” warned Barzani. “If the situation continues, they will become more organised in 2020,” he said.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 23/12/2019; STORY: Graphic News
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