President Trump defended on Saturday his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, just days after four Americans were killed in the country.
“Who are we killing ISIS for? You know, The worst enemy of Russia, Iran, Syria is ISIS. We are killing ISIS for people that are not necessarily in agreement with us, let’s put it that way. We have gone into Syria, and in two years, we have reduced it to about 99 percent of the territorial caliphate,” he told reporters while leaving the White House.
Trump made the surprise announcement in December he would withdraw the approximately 2,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Syria, who have been working with Kurdish and Arab forces to eradicate the terrorist Islamic State.
The U.S. has backed the coalition forces against dictator Bashar Assad, while Russia has supported Assad’s regime.
“Syria was a mess. We have done Assad a big favor and we’ve done our country a favor,” Trump said on Saturday.
Iran has also sought to influence Syria as part of its quest for power in the region, and U.S. officials had said in September the U.S. would not withdraw while Iranian forces were still in the country.
Trump said Saturday it was more important to bring U.S. troops home.
“You have to ask yourself, we are killing ISIS, for Russia, for Iran, for Syria, for Iraq, for a lot of other places. At some point you want to bring our people back home,” he said.
Trump, who spoke on his way to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to meet with the families of four killed in a suicide blast in Syria earlier this week, said speaking with families is “the toughest thing I have to do as president.”
