The United States has no timeline for the withdrawal of American troops from Syria but does not plan to stay indefinitely, a senior State Department official has said, sending a strong signal that US forces could stay until the fight against Islamic State militants is over.
US-backed forces are still retaking territory from Islamic State in Syria, Pentagon officials said on Friday, two weeks after Washington said it would withdraw the roughly 2000 U.S. troops in Syria. President Donald Trump said at the time that the troops had succeeded in their mission and were no longer needed there.
US President Donald Trump summed up Syria in just two words yesterday – "sand and death" – as he tried to justify his decision to withdraw troops.
The administration's abrupt announcement last month, which took officials in Washington and allies by surprise, contributed to Jim Mattis' decision to resign as US defence secretary and prompted concern that Islamic State could stage a comeback.
The State Department official, briefing reporters before a visit to the Middle East next week by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, apparently sought to allay that concern.
"We have no timeline for our military forces to withdraw from Syria," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
"It will be done in such a way that we and our allies and partners maintain pressure on ISIS throughout and we do not open up any vacuums for terrorists."
The United States did not intend to have an indefinite military presence in Syria, the official added.
US officials have told Reuters it could take several months to carry out a withdrawal, potentially giving time for US-backed forces to deal parting blows to the militant group that once held broad swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
Trump said on Wednesday that the United States would get out of Syria slowly "over a period of time" and would protect US-backed Kurdish fighters in the country as Washington draws down troops.
White House national security adviser John Bolton will also travel to Israel and Turkey in the coming days.
"Bolton will travel to Israel and Turkey to discuss the withdrawal of US forces from Syria, and how the US will work with allies and partners to prevent the resurgence of ISIS, stand fast with those who fought with us against ISIS, and counter Iranian malign behaviour in the region," Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said.
Marquis said Bolton would be joined in Turkey by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford and US special Syria envoy James Jeffrey.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which include Kurdish fighters, captured the Syrian town of Kashmah on January 2 after retaking the town of Hajin on December 25, Pentagon spokesman Navy Commander Sean Robertson said.
The day the SDF took Kashmah was the same day that Trump stated during a cabinet meeting his strong desire to gradually withdraw from Syria, calling it a place of "sand and death".
Trump also said it was up to other countries to fight Islamic State, including Russia and Iran, and said that Islamic State was down to its last remaining bits of territory in Syria.
"We're hitting the hell out of them, the ISIS people," Trump said, using an acronym to refer to Islamic State, adding "we're down to final blows."
