The Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. would roughly halve the variety of troops it has deployed in Syria to lower than 1,000 within the coming months.
Washington has had troops in Syria for years as a part of worldwide efforts towards the Daesh terrorist group, which rose out of the chaos of the nation’s civil conflict to grab swaths of territory there and in neighboring Iraq over a decade in the past.
The terrorists have since suffered main defeats in each nations.
“Today the secretary of defense directed the consolidation of US forces in Syria… to select locations,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell mentioned in an announcement, with out specifying the websites the place this is able to happen.
“This deliberate and conditions-based process will bring the US footprint in Syria down to less than 1,000 US forces in the coming months,” he mentioned..
“As this consolidation takes place… US Central Command will remain poised to continue strikes against the remnants of (IS) in Syria,” Parnell added utilizing a unique acronym for Daesh, referring to the army command answerable for the area.
President Donald Trump has lengthy been skeptical of Washington’s presence in Syria, ordering the withdrawal of troops throughout his first time period however in the end leaving American forces within the nation.
As anti-regime forces pressed ahead with a lightning offensive final December that in the end overthrew Syria’s Bashar Assad, Trump mentioned Washington ought to “NOT GET INVOLVED!”
“Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” Trump, then the president-elect, wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Washington stepped up army motion towards Daesh in Syria within the wake of Assad’s overthrow, although it has extra lately shifted its focus to strikes concentrating on Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who’ve been attacking worldwide delivery since late 2023.
U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria had been repeatedly focused by pro-Iran militants following the outbreak of the Gaza conflict in October 2023, however responded with heavy strikes on Tehran-linked targets, and the assaults largely subsided.
Washington for years mentioned it had some 900 army personnel in Syria as a part of worldwide efforts towards Daesh, however the Pentagon introduced in December 2024 that the variety of U.S. troops within the nation had doubled to round 2,000 earlier within the yr.
While the United States is lowering its forces in Syria, Iraq has additionally sought an finish to the U.S.-led coalition’s presence there, the place Washington has mentioned it has some 2,500 troops.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is ready to acknowledge Russian management of the Ukrainian area of Crimea as a part of a broader peace settlement between Moscow and Kyiv, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing folks acquainted with the matter.
Source: www.dailysabah.com