The Trump administration will keep approximately 400 U.S. troops in Syria — double the estimate the White House provided on Thursday, a new report says.
Although the majority of the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria are poised to exit the region in the spring, a senior administration official told the Washington Post that approximately 400 troops will stay. The troops will be stationed in northeast Syria and in southern Syria near Jordan at the al Tanf garrison “for the foreseeable future.”
Although President Trump said in December that the Islamic State was defeated and that all U.S. troops would be sent home, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Thursday “a small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time.”
When contacted about media reports indicating 400 troops would stay, a Pentagon representative told the Washington Examiner: “I would refer you to the White House on Ms. Sanders’ statement.”
Sanders’ Thursday statement came after Trump spoke over the phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Trump’s decision to end U.S. military involvement in Syria has worried some advisers and Kurdish allies who have helped the U.S. that Kurdish forces won’t be safe from Turkish forces. Turkey considers some Kurdish forces in Syria terrorists and said they would be attacked once the U.S. departed.
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But according to Sanders, the two agreed to “continue coordinating on the creation of a potential safe zone.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., praised Sanders’ announcement and noted that establishing a safe zone was critical.
“A safe zone in Syria made up of international forces is the best way to achieve our national security objectives of continuing to contain Iran, ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS, protecting our Turkish allies, and securing the Turkish border with Syria,” Graham, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Thursday.
Graham is a staunch advocate for keeping some troops in Syria and told acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan last week during the Munich Security Conference that a total withdrawal was “the dumbest … thing I have ever heard.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. official told the Post that Trump, Shanahan and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been in unison over the arrangement of keeping troops in Syria for weeks but wanted to confer with European allies first and enter negotiations with a complete withdrawal, with the possibility to “potentially go up.”
Jamie McIntyre contributed to this report.
