The United States is considering a total withdrawal of its forces from Syria, US media reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed US officials.
Such a decision, if confirmed, would upend assumptions about a longer-term US military presence in Syria, which US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other senior US officials had advocated to help ensure ISIL.
Still, President Donald Trump has previously expressed a strong desire to bring troops home from Syria when possible.
On Wendesday, Trump tweeted, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.” He did not elaborate.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that “victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the Global Coalition or its campaign.”
She added, “We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign. The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists’ territory, funding, support and many means of infiltrating our borders.”
The timing of the withdrawal was not immediately clear and US officials who spoke to Reuters news agency on the condition of anonymity did not disclose details about the deliberations, including who was involved. It was unclear how soon a decision could be announced.
The Pentagon declined to comment, saying only that it continued to work with partners in the region.
On Saturday, prior to the most recent reports surfacing, the US-led coalition, officially known as the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, tweeted that its mission in northeast Syria remained unchanged.
“We continue operations, to include manning observation posts, and remain committed to ensuring the lasting defeat of ISIS. Any reports otherwise are false and designed to sow confusion and chaos,” the coalition said.
Turkey factor
The United States still has about 2,000 troops in Syria, many of them special operations forces working closely with an alliance of Kurdish and Arab groups known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.
The partnership with the SDF has outraged NATO ally Turkey, which views the US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as an extension of an armed group fighting inside Turkey.
The deliberations on US troops come as Ankara threatens a new offensive in northern Syria.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country may launch the new military operation at any moment, adding that Trump has given a positive response to Turkey’s plans.
The announcement came days after Erdogan announced that Turkish forces would launch a new cross-border operation against the YPG to the east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria.
The US is supporting Kurdish forces east of the Euphrates, where YPG troops have been fighting against ISIL.
But Ankara recently again voiced frustration about what it says are delays in the implementation of a deal with the US to clear the YPG from the town of Manbij, located west of the Euphrates in YPG-controlled areas.
On Wednesday, Ahmet Berat Conkar, a Turkish MP who is also on the foreign affairs committee in parliament, said that the “US presence in northern Syria in cooperation with the YPG is a great risk”.
He told Al Jazeera that the US presence in YPG-controlled areas “is creating problems between the two sides”.
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Sizeable US military presence would be left in region
A complete withdrawal of US troops from Syria would still leave a sizeable US military presence in the region, including about 5,200 troops across the border in Iraq.
Much of the US campaign in Syria has been waged by warplanes flying out of Qatar and other locations in the Middle East.
Still, Mattis and US State Department officials have long fretted about leaving Syria before a peace agreement can be reached to end that country’s brutal civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced around half of Syria’s prewar population of about 22 million.
In April, Mattis said, “We do not want to simply pull out before the diplomats have won the peace. You win the fight – and then you win the peace.”
ISIL is also widely expected to revert to guerilla tactics once it no longer holds territory. A US withdrawal could open Trump up to criticism if ISIL reemerged.
Trump has previously lambasted his predecessor, Barack Obama, for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq that preceded an unraveling of the Iraqi armed forces. Iraqi forces collapsed in the face of ISIL’s advance into the country in 2014.
Additional reporting by Umut Uras
