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Conflict in Syria

Pentagon’s doubts over Russia’s Syria pullout show US has no real data — top brass

On December 11 Vladimir Putin ordered the pullout of Russian forces from Syria

© Sergey Fadeichev/TASS

MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. The skepticism voiced by the Pentagon’s representatives over Russian forces’ withdrawal from Syria shows that the United States does not have information on the real situation, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Friday.

"The Pentagon’s representatives’ conclusions on the withdrawal or non-withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria show not only their ill-concealed wishes that we should not be there but also that the US does not have real information on what is happening on the ground," Konashenkov said.

Read also

Putin orders Russian forces pullout from Syria

"If the US TV channels don’t show the arrivals from Syria of Russian aviation, military doctors, sappers and military police and the return of military equipment to the Russian sea ports, that’s the Pentagon’s problem. The US defense agency can really solve it by switching on the Russian or European TV channels," he said.

Konashenkov commented on the remark by Marine Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, earlier this week that Washington had not observed any significant withdrawal. On December 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited the Hmeymim air base near Latakia, ordered the pullout of Russian forces from Syria.

The Defense Ministry spokesman also expressed bewilderment over the Pentagon’s statement that the US -led coalition will remain in Syria until the full defeat of the Islamic State (terror group, outlawed in Russia). This remark came in contrast to US President Donald Trump’s statement: "We've won in Syria, we've won in Iraq, but they (IS terrorists) spread to other areas and we're getting them as fast as they spread."

"It turns out that the Pentagon is deliberately deceiving the international and US public, including the supreme commander-in-chief, or there are no more grounds and even formal pretexts for the US troops’ presence in Syria," Konashenkov stressed.

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