United States:
America will roughly halve the variety of troops it has deployed in Syria to lower than 1,000 within the coming months, the Pentagon mentioned Friday.
Washington has had troops in Syria for years as a part of worldwide efforts in opposition to the Islamic State (IS) group, which rose out of the chaos of the nation’s civil struggle to grab swaths of territory there and in neighboring Iraq over a decade in the past.
The brutal jihadists have since suffered main defeats in each international locations, however nonetheless stay a menace.
“In the present day the secretary of protection directed the consolidation of US forces in Syria… to pick out places,” 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 course of will carry the US footprint in Syria all the way down to lower than 1,000 US forces within the coming months,” he mentioned.
“As this consolidation takes place…Â US Central Command will stay poised to proceed strikes in opposition to the remnants of (IS) in Syria,” Parnell added, referring to the navy command accountable 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 Islamist-led rebels pressed ahead with a lightning offensive final December that in the end overthrew Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Trump mentioned Washington ought to “NOT GET INVOLVED!”
“Syria is a multitude, however will not be our buddy, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” Trump, then the president-elect, wrote on his Reality Social platform.
– Years of struggle in opposition to IS –
The 2014 onslaught by IS prompted a US-led air marketing campaign in help of native floor forces — the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Iraqi authorities models.
Washington additionally deployed 1000’s of American personnel to advise and help native forces, with US troops in some circumstances instantly combating the jihadists.
After years of bloody warfare, Iraq’s prime minister introduced a remaining victory over IS in December 2017, whereas the SDF proclaimed the defeat of the group’s “caliphate” in March 2019 after seizing its remaining bastion in Syria.
However the jihadists nonetheless have some fighters within the countryside of each international locations, and US forces have lengthy carried out periodic strikes and raids to assist forestall the group’s resurgence.
Washington stepped up navy motion in opposition to IS in Syria within the wake of Assad’s overthrow, although it has extra lately shifted its focus to strikes focusing on Yemen’s Huthi rebels, who’ve been attacking worldwide transport since late 2023.
US forces in Iraq and Syria have been repeatedly focused by pro-Iran militants following the outbreak of the Gaza struggle 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 navy personnel in Syria as a part of worldwide efforts in opposition to IS, however the Pentagon introduced in December 2024 that the variety of US troops within the nation had doubled to round 2,000 earlier within the 12 months.
Whereas the US is lowering its forces in Syria, Iraq has additionally sought an finish to the US-led coalition’s presence there, the place Washington has mentioned it has some 2,500 troops.
America and Iraq have introduced that the coalition would finish its decade-long navy mission in federal Iraq by the tip of 2025, and by September 2026 within the autonomous Kurdistan area.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
