US announces withdrawal from Syria as Trump declares Islamic State defeated
US forces have started to withdraw from northeastern Syria, the White House said on Wednesday, in an unexpected move ahead of an anticipated Turkish offensive east of the Euphrates river against the US forces’ pro-Kurdish allies.
The US has at least 2,000 troops stationed in the region where it has also waged an air campaign in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) battling the Islamic State (IS) group.
The SDF has undertaken the bulk of the fighting on the ground in Syria against IS militants, who once held a band of territory stretching along the Turkish border across northern Syria and Iraq that included the cities of Raqqa and Mosul.
The White House said on Wednesday that it had already started withdrawing troops as the battle with the militant group was moving into a new phase.
“These victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the global coalition or its campaign. We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign,” White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said in a statement, referring to the group by its other acronym.
Washington is also evacuating all State Department from Syria within 24 hours, Reuters reported, citing a US official.
US President Donald Trump earlier on Wednesday said on Twitter that IS had been defeated, while officials told news agencies that a withdrawal was imminent.
“We will ensure force protection is adequately maintained, but as quickly as possible,” an official told the AFP news agency.
Trump v Pentagon
The US Department of Defense did not confirm that the withdrawal had begun.
“At this time, we continue to work by, with and through our partners in the region,” said Colonel Robert Manning, a Pentagon spokesman on Wednesday.
Trump has been pushing for a Syria withdrawal for the past few months, with Pentagon officials countering his assertions that the fight against IS was over.
“We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We’ll be coming out of Syria like very soon. Let the other people take care of it now,” the US president said late in March.
In April, Brett McGurk, the special US envoy for the global coalition against IS, said the US military’s mission in Syria “isn’t over” stressing that troops are going to “complete that mission”.
The SDF seized IS’s largest remaining urban centre, Hajin, last week in a US-backed offensive. But the militants have launched fierce counter attacks in recent days in an attempt to re-enter Hajin.
The US-led coalition launched intense air strikes against IS targets in support of SDF forces in the city on Tuesday.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based Syrian opposition monitoring group, the number of IS fighters killed since 10 September in Deir Ezzor is more than 950, while the SDF has suffered more than 550 casualties.
At least 328 civilians have died over the same three-month period in the remaining IS-held territories in the north, the monitor said.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said prior to the White House’s announcement that any decision to withdraw troops would be a mistake.
“An American withdrawal at this time would be a big win for ISIS, Iran, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, and Russia. I fear it will lead to devastating consequences for our nation, the region, and throughout the world,” Graham said in a statement.
“It will make it more difficult to recruit future partners willing to confront radical Islam. It will also be seen by Iran and other bad actors as a sign of American weakness in the efforts to contain Iranian expansion.”
Marco Rubio, another Republican senator, said a hasty withdrawal from Syria would be a “grave error” with consequences beyond defeating IS.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said the “illegal American presence in Syria” was “becoming a dangerous obstacle to the path to a settlement.”
‘Dream scenario for ISIS’
The SDF have been the main US partners on the ground in Syria in the fight against IS, but the alliance has infuriated NATO ally Turkey which sees the SDF – which is heavily dominated by the pro-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) – as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long guerilla war with the Turkish state.
Turkey has repeatedly threatened to target YPG forces based east of the Euphrates river, particularly those based in and around the city of Manbij.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Trump had “responded positively” to Turkey’s demand for the YPG to leave Manbij.
“We talked to Trump. He responded positively,” said Erdogan, speaking at an event in the southern Turkish city of Konya.
“These terrorists have to go to the east of the Euphrates. If they do not leave, we will send them. Because they are disturbing us.”
Last week Turkey appeared to indicate that an operation was imminent.
Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, warned that the withdrawal was further evidence of Trump’s “dangerous unpredictability”.
“Geopolitically, this is not just a dream scenario for ISIS, but also for Russia, Iran and the Assad regime, all of whom stand to benefit substantially from a US withdrawal from Syria,” he said.
“Should the US leave Syria in a matter of weeks, as is now rumored, the Assad regime will rapidly step in to buy the loyalty of our Arab allies in the northeast, breaking them away from the Kurdish PYD, who will in all likelihood be left vulnerable to an imminent Turkish military intervention east of the Euphrates river.
“It’s a sad state of affairs when our key allies on the ground, who’ve shed blood and thousands of lives for our fight against ISIS, are to be well and truly abandoned. Trump may well have given this de facto green light to Turkish President Erdogan when they spoke on the phone on Friday.”
Source: US announces withdrawal from Syria as Trump declares Islamic State defeated | Middle East Eye