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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 stated 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 battle 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 risk.
“Right this moment the secretary of protection directed the consolidation of US forces in Syria… to pick out areas,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stated in an announcement, with out specifying the websites the place this might happen.
“This deliberate and conditions-based course of will deliver the US footprint in Syria all the way down to lower than 1,000 US forces within the coming months,” he stated.
“As this consolidation takes place… 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 liable 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 finally leaving American forces within the nation.
As Islamist-led rebels pressed ahead with a lightning offensive final December that finally overthrew Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Trump stated Washington ought to “NOT GET INVOLVED!”
“Syria is a multitude, however will not be our pal, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” Trump, then the president-elect, wrote on his Fact Social platform.
– Years of battle in opposition to IS –
The 2014 onslaught by IS prompted a US-led air marketing campaign in assist of native floor forces — the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Iraqi authorities models.
Washington additionally deployed hundreds of American personnel to advise and help native forces, with US troops in some circumstances straight combating the jihadists.
After years of bloody warfare, Iraq’s prime minister introduced a ultimate victory over IS in December 2017, whereas the SDF proclaimed the defeat of the group’s “caliphate” in March 2019 after seizing its ultimate 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 stop 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 just lately shifted its focus to strikes concentrating 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 battle in October 2023, however responded with heavy strikes on Tehran-linked targets, and the assaults largely subsided.
Washington for years stated 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 america is lowering its forces in Syria, Iraq has additionally sought an finish to the US-led coalition’s presence there, the place Washington has stated 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.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)