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Syria, Iraq crises sparked by US interventions: Analyst

“The major reason over the last century for the crises that has beset the Middle East and North Africa, has been intervention by Western powers,” Lauria says.

Political and military interventions by the United States and its allies have sparked the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq that have taken thousands of lives, says an author and political commentator.

Jack Lauria made the comments in an interview on Monday with Press TV over Washington’s plans to increase the number of special operations forces in Syria and deploy Apache helicopter gunships to the battlefield in Iraq.

“The major reason over the last century for the crises that has beset the Middle East and North Africa, has been intervention by Western powers,” Lauria said.

He said the ongoing crisis in Iraq has been particularly sparked by the US invasion in 2003 that gave rise to the Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri group.

Lauria argued that Washington, along with Turkey and other Persian Gulf allies directly supported the terror group and helped it take parts of Syria under control as well.

“The issue now is what does the US do? What is the responsibility of the United States now that they have created this mess? Do they just walk away or there is more intervention needed,” he noted.

Lauria said Washington’s objectives in Syria were suspicious considering its record of training anti-government militants in the country.

Lauria said the US could make up for its interventions by coordinating the fight against terror groups.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria has left over 470,000 people dead since its inception in March 2011, according to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research.

US to send more troops to Iraq

US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Monday that the US is going to deploy 217 more troops and a number of Apache helicopters to Iraq, to help Baghdad expand its military efforts against Daesh.

The Pentagon chief made the announcement as he made a stop in Iraq on his Middle East tour, in which he also asked allies in the region for help on the war against Daesh.

With the new decision, the administration of President Barack Obama has put the US troop level in Iraq at 4,087, up from the previous 3,870 forces that the Pentagon had deployed.

This is while Obama was elected on a promise to withdraw US troops from Iraq, and announced its fulfillment in 2011.


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