Date: Dec 20, 2018 Source: The Daily Star U.S. begins pulling forces from Syria, officials eye full withdrawal Reuters WASHINGTON: The United States said Wednesday that it has begun pulling U.S. forces from Syria while officials said Washington was considering removing all its troops as it winds up its campaign to retake territory once held by Daesh (ISIS). A decision to pull out completely, if confirmed, would raise doubts about how to prevent a resurgence of the militant group, and would undercut U.S. leverage in the region and undermine diplomatic efforts to end the Syrian civil war, now in its eighth year. Reports of a full U.S. military withdrawal drew criticism from some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans, who said leaving would strengthen the hand of Russia and Iran, which both support Syrian President Bashar Assad. “We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement issued after Trump tweeted, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there.” Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, was slow to get involved in Syria’s civil war, fearing being dragged into another foreign conflict even as he sought to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan. It was not immediately clear from Huckabee Sanders’ statement whether all of the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in the country would leave and if so, by when. Huckabee Sanders suggested that the U.S. would remain engaged to some degree. “The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support,” she said. One U.S. official said Washington aimed to withdraw troops within 60 to 100 days and said the U.S. State Department was evacuating all its personnel in Syria within 24 hours. A second U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. military was planning for a full withdrawal but said the timing could be quicker than 60-100 days. A decision to pull out completely would upend assumptions about a longer-term U.S. military presence in Syria, which senior U.S. officials have advocated to help ensure Daesh cannot re-emerge. Trump, generally wary of all U.S. military involvement abroad, has previously voiced a strong desire to bring troops home from Syria. His tweet Wednesday showed he saw no further grounds for remaining, even as some senior Republican lawmakers fiercely disagreed. Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, often a Trump ally but generally a foreign policy hawk, said a withdrawal would have “devastating consequences” for the United States in the region and throughout the world. A British defense official said he strongly disagreed with Trump that Daesh had been defeated in Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would study a U.S. decision to pull its forces from Syria and would ensure its own security. In Russia, TASS news agency quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria created prospects for a political settlement of the crisis there. Many of the remaining U.S. troops in Syria are special operations forces working closely with an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. The partnership with the SDF over the past several years has led to the defeat of Daesh in Syria, but has also outraged NATO ally Turkey, which views Kurdish YPG forces in the alliance as an extension of a separatist militant group fighting inside Turkey. The deliberations on U.S. troops come as Ankara threatens a new offensive in Syria. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and State Department officials have long fretted about leaving Syria before a peace agreement can be reached to end the brutal civil war. Daesh is also widely expected to revert to guerrilla tactics once it no longer holds territory. A pullout would allow other countries, like Iran, to increase their influence in Syria, experts said. “If we withdraw then who fills the vacuum, who is able to stabilize? And that is the million dollar question,” said Andrew Tabler, a Syria specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank. “The timing is hard to understand.” Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Daesh, last week said the group was down to its last 1 percent of the territory it once held in its self-styled “caliphate.” It has no remaining territory in Iraq. Hajin, the group’s last major stronghold in Syria, is close to being seized by U.S.-backed SDF forces. After losing Hajin, Daesh will control a diminishing strip of territory along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in the area where U.S.-backed operations are focused. Militants also control some desert terrain west of the river in territory otherwise controlled by the Damascus government and its allies.