DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — Media reports suggested on Wednesday that 1,000 more troops would be sent into Syria to back the offensive against Daesh in the city of Raqqa.
On March 9, the US-led coalition against Daesh confirmed that a US Marine Corps artillery unit had deployed to Syria to aid local forces in the Raqqa offensive.
"Any military operation in Syria without the approval of the Syrian government is illegal, and I said if there's any troops on the Syrian soil, this is an invasion, whether to liberate Raqqa or any other place. This is first. Second, we all know that the [US-led] coalition has never been serious about fighting ISIS [Daesh] or the terrorists, so we have to think about the real intention of the whole plan, if there's a plan to liberate al-Raqqa," Assad said.
"The American policy is based on many standards, not double; they have maybe ten standards because they don't base their policy on values or on international law; they base it on their own vision, their own interests, sometimes on the balance of different lobbies and powers within the American institutions. We all know that," Assad said.
Last November, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with the assistance of the US-led coalition's airstrikes started the military operation to liberate Raqqa that is considered the terrorist group's major outpost in the country.
