The U.S. is building yet another military base in Syria, and it just happens to be in middle of Syria's biggest oil field.

According to the resource, a new US Coalition base is being built in the area east of the city of Mejadin, near al-Omar, Syria’s largest oil field.
Col (ret.) Alexander Zhilin, head of the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Applied Problems of National Security, said that there was an obvious trend for the Pentagon to create new facilities in and around Syria’s largest oil and gas fields. Speaking to the Federal News Agency, the retired officer said this trend makes it clear that the US has no plans to leave Syria any time soon, and that their intervention has nothing to do with establishing order or fighting against terrorism.

It kind of makes it hard to appear to be the good guys when you are illegally seizing the oil fields of other nations.
Needless to say, Syria isn't real happy about this.

The US-led coalition fighting ISIS has observed pro-Syrian regime forces once again conducting a slow build-up east of the Euphrates River near where US troops are present advising local allies, according to multiple US and coalition officials.
..The slow buildup comes just days after pro-regime forces fired artillery rounds that landed about one kilometer from a US-allied force of Syrians operating near the coalition base in At Tanf, Syria.

However, the big danger is to the north. After crushing our Kurdish allies in Afrin (while we stood by and said nothing), Turkey is preparing to launch the next phase in their anti-Kurdish military offensive. Except this time our military bases are in middle of it.

Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, initially told Al Jazeera on Monday that his government had reached a general agreement with the U.S., one that would allow Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies to expand an offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters across northern Syria. The U.S. has trained and equipped a number of these Kurdish groups, including the People's Protection Units (YPG), in order to fight ISIS as part of the larger Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
In response to Kalin's suggestion that the U.S. had agreed to move these troops or order them to stand down in the event of a Turkey-backed attack, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Tuesday, "That’s funny, because no agreement has been reached."
After speaking with outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday, Kalin clarified, saying they had reached "an understanding," not an agreement, as Turkish troops and insurgent Free Syrian Army fighters advanced closer to U.S. military positions in northern Syria, according to Turkey's Daily Sabah.

#Syria #Turkey #OperationOliveBranch#Turkish army is removing part of the wall near Ras al-Ayn border.

— Mr. Revinsky (@MrKyruer) March 22, 2018

The #Turkish army and the #Syria/n army exchange fire artillery all night around the city of Nub'bul where the Turkish Army and its allies advanced and occupied 3 villages in rural #Aleppo previously under #SAA control.

— Elijah J. Magnier (@ejmalrai) March 22, 2018

An "understanding" sounds a whole lot like an "agreement" to me.
It sounds like the Syrian Kurds are about to get screwed by the U.S. yet again, and this will drive them further into the arms of Damascus, which is nervous about Turkey's ambitions.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Foreign Ministry sent two letters to the United Nations objecting to the Turkish capture of the Syrian town of Afrin, Saudi Arabian outlet Arab News said .
"Syria condemns the Turkish occupation of Afrin and the crimes it is committing there, and demands the invading forces immediately withdraw from the Syrian territory they occupied," the ministry said.