US to increase defence to guard Syrian oil against ISIS

The US Defence Department said Thursday it planned to beef up its presence in the northeast corner of Syria to protect oil fields there from being retaken by a potentially resurgent Islamic State group.

"The US is committed to reinforcing our position, in coordination with our SDF partners, in northeast Syria with additional military assets to prevent those oil fields from falling back to into the hands of ISIS or other destabilizing actors," a defence official said in a statement.