According to the Al Jazeera source, US President Donald Trump has not yet made a final decision on the US future military presence in Syria.
The New York Times daily reported on April 18, citing sources, that three out of eight US bases in northeastern Syria would be closed in the near future and their military personnel would be slashed down from around 2,000 to 1,400. The newspaper’s sources said that a final decision on troops withdrawal would be made in some two months and the US contingent may be reduced to 500 troops.
Syria’s Al Watan paper said on April 23 that the US had begun to pull out troops and vehicles from the al-Shaddadi military base in the al-Hassakah governorate. On April 16, special units were withdrawn from a military base near the Conoco gas field in the Deir ez-Zor governorate to neighboring Iraq.
Since 2015, the US command has been supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led coalition, which controlled 25% of Syria’s territory, including oil- and gas-bearing areas in the al-Hassakah, Deir ez-Zor, and Raqqa governorates in the country’s eastern and northeastern parts.
On March 10, Syrian interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement, under which the Kurdish alliance was to be incorporated into the security forces subordinate to the new Syrian authorities. The sides agreed that all civilian and military facilities located in northeastern Syria would be integrated into the public administration system headed by the new authorities in Damascus.
