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Trump defended his decision on Thursday, tweeting that he was fulfilling a promise from his 2016 presidential campaign to leave Syria. The United States was doing the work of other countries with little in return and it was “time for others to finally fight,” he wrote, Reuters reported
US officials said Trump’s order to withdraw troops is also expected to mean an end to the US air campaign against Islamic State in Syria, which has been critical to rolling back the militants there and in neighboring Iraq, with more than 100,000 bombs and missiles fired at targets in the two countries since 2015.
Still, one US official cautioned that a final decision on the air campaign had not yet been made, and did not rule out some kind of support for partners and allies. France, for example, has said it will continue to fight in Syria.
The United States told the UN Security Council it was committed to the “permanent destruction” of ISIS in Syria and would keep pushing for the withdrawal of Iranian-backed forces in the country.
The roughly 2,000 US troops in Syria, many of them special forces, were ostensibly helping to combat Islamic State but were also seen as a possible bulwark against Assad who has retaken much of Syria from his civil war foes with military help from Iran and Russia.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have told Reuters that US commanders on the ground are concerned about the impact of a quick withdrawal and were surprised by the troop pullout decision.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been fighting the ISIS State with US support for three years, said the withdrawal of troops would grant the militants breathing space to regroup at a critical stage in the conflict and leave Syrians stuck between “the claws of hostile parties” fighting for territory in the seven-year-old war.
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