No US troops in Syrian Kurdistan

TISHRIN DAM, Syria (K24) - On Friday, the senior military commanders of the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) denied the reports about the presence of US ground troops in Syria.

Speaking to K24 from Tishrin Dam, colonel Talal Silo, spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces said on Friday, "With high appreciation and respect for the US air support for our forces, I officially deny the news reports that claim US ground troops are in Tishrin Dam."

Sharvan Darwish, an SDF senior military commander, told a K24 reporter on Friday, "Our forces fight the (IS) terrorists in collaboration with international coalition air strikes, and there are no US ground troops in our bases. Many news agencies are just making up stories."

Lewand Rojava, a senior officer of SDF, told K24 on Friday, "When our forces responded to IS attacks in the surrounding areas of the dam on Wednesday, many news agencies made up stories of US ground forces to undermine our efforts."

"Although US officials talked a lot about sending ground forces to Syria, their statements do not mean that the troops are currently in Syria. Some news agencies are working for terrorist organizations that are fighting our unique experience of democracy in Syria," Lewand added.

He pointed out that the fighting around Tishrin Dam has not ended yet because IS militants are still launching missiles and mortar attacks around the dam.

On October 30, White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said that the U.S. would be deploying "less than 50" special operations forces, who will be sent to Kurdish-controlled territoriesin northern Syria. Earnest added that the American troops will help local Kurdish and Arab forces fighting ISIS with logistics and are planning to bolster their efforts.

"The President does expect that they can have an impact in intensifying our strategy for building the capacity of the local forces inside Syria for taking the fight on the ground to IS in their own country. That has been the core element of the military component of our strategy from the beginning: building the capacity of local forces on the ground," Earnest further explained.

On December 26, SDF liberated the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates between Manbij and Raqqa, after violent confrontations with the Islamic State militants.

(Redwan Bezar contributed to this report from Tishrin Dam)