United States troops exiting Syria through Iraq will eventually make their way home, according to the Pentagon.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper provided the update on Tuesday after a statement from the Iraqi military that said U.S. troops do not have permission to stay in the country. Esper initially said the troops would relocate to western Iraq in order to continue operations against the Islamic State.
“We’ll reposition as they come out of northeast Syria into Iraq. You know, eventually, their destination is home. But what we’ve got to do is pull them out deliberately, out of northeast Syria, and make our preparations to go home from there; and I’ll have that discussion tomorrow with the Iraqi defense minister about the details,” Esper told reporters while visiting officials in Saudi Arabia.
“But the aim isn’t to stay in Iraq interminably; the aim is to pull our soldiers out and eventually get them back home.”
Esper did not offer an exact timetable as to when the troops would exit Iraq but expects the withdrawal would likely take weeks, not days. He added that plans are still in the “early stages.”
President Trump said Monday that a small U.S. force will stay in Syria to protect oil fields.
The White House announced the troop withdrawal from Syria earlier this month, paving the way for Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria, which is currently held by Kurdish YPG forces. Turkey, a NATO ally, considers the group an offshoot of the PKK, a designated terrorist organization and longtime Turkish enemy. The U.S. backed the YPG during the fight against ISIS, but the group now says it feels abandoned by the U.S. decision to leave northern Syria.
Turkish forces have executed several Kurdish civilians, according to reports. Several ISIS prisoners have escaped from captivity as YPG forces relocate north to take on the Turkish force, while thousands of civilians are believed to have been displaced due to the conflict.
Brett McGurk, the State Department’s former head of counter-ISIS operations, said Monday he expects the situation “is going to get worse” in the days to come. Trump has defended his decision as a fulfillment of his promise to bring troops home from endless wars in the Middle East.
[Opinion: Trump isn’t bringing US troops home; he’s sending them back to Iraq]
