Page 10 - aruba-today-20190112

A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 12 January 2019

A timeline of the US involvement in Syria’s conflict

By The Associated Press Arab fighters, dubbed the
BEIRUT (AP) — America’s Syrian Democratic Forces,
four-year involvement in and push IS out of most of
Syria’s civil war may soon its strongholds.
be coming to an end, af- November 24, 2016: Se-
ter U.S. officials announced nior Chief Petty Officer
Friday that the process of Scott Cooper Dayton, 42,
withdrawal from the coun- of Woodbridge, Virginia, is
try has begun. killed in an improvised ex-
A defense official in Wash- plosive device blast near
ington said some military the northern Syrian town of
cargo has been pulled out, Ayn Issa, becoming the first
part of what the military American casualty in com-
calls the start of a “deliber- bat in the fight against IS in
ate withdrawal” from Syria, Syria.
where about 2,000 troops April 4, 2017: More than 90
have been working with a people are killed in a sus-
coalition of Syrian Kurdish pected nerve gas attack
and Arab fighters to defeat on the town of Khan Sheik-
the remnants of the Islamic houn in the rebel-held Idlib
State group. province. Moscow and Da-
U.S. President Donald Trump mascus deny responsibility.
announced the plans for April 5, 2017: Trump says
the withdrawal abruptly In this file picture taken on Thursday, March 29, 2018, of U.S-backed Syrian Manbij Military Council Assad’s government has
last month. stands next to U.S. humvee at a U.S. troop’s outpost in Manbij, Syria. “crossed a lot of lines” with
The U.S. involvement in the Associated Press the suspected chemical
war-torn country has shift- forces. visit the sites and determine an effort to rescue foreign attack in Syria and a day
ed from working quietly be- August 2011: President that ground-to-ground mis- hostages taken by the Is- later, the U.S. fires 59 cruise
hind the scenes to support Barack Obama calls on siles loaded with sarin were lamic State group, but did missiles into Syria in retalia-
rebels to overt displays of Assad to resign and orders fired on civilian areas while not find them. tion — the first direct Ameri-
U.S. force and a gradually Syrian government assets residents slept. The U.S. and Sept. 22, 2014: Obama can assault on the Syrian
widening footprint in an at- frozen. others blame the Syrian launches a U.S. air cam- government.
tempt to shape the fight. June 2013: U.S. officials con- government. paign against the Islamic March 30, 2018: U.S. Master
The following is a timeline clude that Assad’s forces Aug. 31, 2013: Obama says State in Syria, one month Sgt. Jonathan J. Dunbar is
of the U.S.’s involvement in had used chemical weap- he will go to Congress for after launching airstrikes in killed by a roadside bomb
Syria’s conflict that erupted ons against the opposition. authorization to carry out neighboring Iraq. To date, attack in Syria alongside a
in March 2011. Obama authorizes direct punitive strikes against the the U.S.-led coalition has British serviceman.
___ support for the rebels. Syrian government, but ap- launched airstrikes on at April 7, 2018: Syrian activists,
March 2011: Protests erupt Aug. 20, 2012: Obama fa- pears to lack the necessary least 17,000 locations in rescuers and medics say a
in the southern Syrian city mously describes the use support in the legislature. Syria since the start of the poison gas attack on the
of Daraa over security forc- by Assad’s government of He is widely criticized for operation. rebel-held town of Douma
es’ detention of a group of chemical weapons a “red not committing to his “red Late 2015: The first Ameri- near the capital has killed
boys accused of painting line” that would draw U.S. line” comment. can ground troops enter at least 40 people. The Syr-
anti-government graffiti on retaliation. Summer of 2014: The U.S. Syria — initially 50, growing ian government and Russia
the walls of their school. Aug. 21, 2013: Hundreds of administration reveals that to the current official total reject the allegations, say-
Demonstrations spread, as people suffocate in rebel- several dozen special oper- of about 2,000. They recruit, ing the purported evidence
does the crackdown by held suburbs of the Syrian ations troops had been on organize and advise thou- of the chemical weapons
President Bashar Assad’s capital. U.N. investigators the ground in Syria briefly in sands of Syrian Kurdish and attack was fabricated. q

Russia dismisses reports of prisoner swap with US

Associated Press But Russian Foreign Min- prisoner rights activist, told
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s istry spokeswoman Ma- the Interfax news agency
Foreign Ministry on Friday ria Zakharova said at a he visited Moscow’s Lefor-
dismissed suggestions that briefing that Whelan is tovo Prison, where Whel-
an American arrested in accused of espionage an is being held. He said
Moscow on suspicion of and will face trial. “At the Whelan’s cell was recently
spying could be used in a current stage, there is no repaired and has hot wa-
prisoner swap for a Russian talk about any sort of ex- ter, a toilet and a TV.
held in the United States. change,” she said, dis- But Yenikeyev said prison
Paul Whelan, a former missing a possible swap as officials didn’t let him or
U.S. Marine, was arrested “speculations and fakes.” other activists see or talk
in Moscow last month on Zakharova also said Rus- to Whelan, saying that au-
suspicion of espionage. sia would allow diplomats thorities said he doesn’t
Whelan’s arrest raised This undated file photo provided by the Whelan family shows from Britain, Ireland and speak Russian and they
speculation that he could Paul Whelan in Iceland. Canada as well as the U.S. could not monitor a con-
be swapped for one of Associated Press to visit Whelan, who holds versation in English. He
the Russians held in the tivist Maria Butina, who ing as a foreign agent in four citizenships. said the activists will try to
U.S. such as gun rights ac- has pleaded guilty to act- the U.S. Yevgeny Yenikeyev, a visit Whelan again.q