The US Department of Defense announced on Friday the upcoming withdrawal of about 1000 of the some 2,000 US soldiers deployed in Syria as part of the international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell said the US military presence in Syria would be reduced to fewer than 1000 soldiers in the coming months.
Although ISIS was defeated in 2019, jihadist cells remain active. However, Parnell stressed that significant progress had been made in degrading ISIS’s appeal and operational capabilities.
US President Donald Trump, who took office in Washington on 20 January, has long been sceptical about the US military presence in Syria. The fall of Bashar al-Assad in late December and his replacement by an Islamist-led coalition has not changed Trump’s stance.
In a statement in December, Trump described Syria as chaotic, adding that it was not America’s fight.
ISIS’s control over large areas of Syria and Iraq from 2014 prompted the intervention of a US-led international coalition, which mainly supported Iraqi army units and Kurds fighting the terror group.
The US also deployed thousands of soldiers on its own to support local troops and conduct military operations.
Following the victory against ISIS, declared in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019, a continued US military presence has targeted remaining jihadist cells.
