&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Mission accomplished? US forces begin final exit from Syria after 11-year deployment")
US forces that led the coalition against the Islamic State began the process of withdrawal from their largest base in northeastern Syria on Monday (Feb 23) and expected to complete their withdrawal from Syria within a month, AFP reported, citing sources. The decision to pull out comes as Syria's government widened its control over territories in the northeast, previously controlled by US-allied Kurdish forces after formally joining hands with the coalition against IS.
US troops have already pulled out from two other key bases in the past two weeks, Al-Tanf in the southeast and Shadadi in the northeast. American presence in the country is represented by 1000 troops along with aircraft and other military equipment still deployed in Syria.
The development comes after 11 years of US military presence that officially began with airstrikes against the Islamist group in 2014. The US, along with its allies, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), launched Operation Inherent Resolve in 2014 to dismantle the caliphate and free the occupied territory from IS fighters.
After forcing IS out of most of its territory in 2019, the US Army partially withdrew later that year but maintained a limited presence of nearly 2,000 troops in the region.
The most significant shift in US strategy came after the fall of Basar-al-Assad government in December 2024. The American policy shifted towards mediating between the new Damascus government and the Kurdish SDF to ensure a stable handover of power.
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After Assad's ouster, Ahmed al-Sharra, a former al-Qaeda operative and founder of Al-Nusra, was formally appointed as President of Syria after his Sunni Islamist group, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), toppled the Assad regime in Damascus.
On January 29, a landmark agreement was signed to integrate the Kurdish led-SDF into the new Syrian national military. President Trump ordered the final 1,000 troops to leave after the new Syrian government of Al-Sharra, who was on the US sanction list for Jihadi activities, proved that it could secure the "oil fields" and maintain the fight against ISIS remnants.
