US forces have left Al Tanf military base on Syria’s border and withdrawn to Jordan, Central Command (Centcom) confirmed on Thursday.
Troops completed their "orderly departure" on Wednesday, Centcom said in a statement. The departure is part of a "deliberate and conditions-based transition" under Operation Inherent Resolve.
“US forces remain poised to respond to any ISIS threats that arise in the region as we support partner-led efforts to prevent the terrorist network’s resurgence,” said Centcom head Admiral Brad Cooper.
In the past two months US forces have struck more than 100 targets and captured or killed more than 50 ISIS members, Centcom added.
A security official earlier told The National that the US troops were replaced within an hour by Syrian army units.
“They left yesterday, there are now no Americans at Al Tanf,” the Syrian security source said on condition of anonymity. No reason was provided for their withdrawal from the site near the border with Jordan and Iraq, they added.
The outpost was established in 2014 as a key US base for co-ordinating and carrying out operations by the global coalition against ISIS. While much of the American presence in Syria was in the Kurdish-held north-east, the US also co-ordinated with an opposition unit at Al Tanf, which remained outside of the control of the former Assad regime.
The Ministry of Defence in Damascus confirmed the developments on Thursday. “Through co-ordination between the US and Syrian sides, Syrian army units have taken Al Tanf base, securing it and the surrounding area, as well as deploying along the Syrian-Jordanian-Iraqi border,” a statement said. Border forces would be deployed in the coming days.
Last year, The National twice visited the base, where commanders underlined the importance of US technology and air surveillance capabilities in tracking pockets of ISIS extremists who still roam the desert.
Since the Assad regime’s fall in December 2024, Washington has been reassessing its presence in Syria, boosting co-ordination with the central government. Damascus officially joined the global coalition against ISIS last year, as Washington shifted its focus from teaming up with Kurdish-led militants in north-eastern Syria and encouraged them to join the centrally controlled army. The Kurdish-led forces struck an agreement to do so with Damascus last month, after losing territory to advancing government troops.
Since the withdrawal from Al Tanf, most US troops in Syria now remain in pockets of the country's far north-east. From there, they launched an operation last month to move up to 7,000 prisoners suspected of ISIS affiliation into Iraq.
ISIS and ISIS-inspired people continue to plan and sometimes succeed in carrying out attacks in Syria. In December, two US soldiers and an American civilian interpreter were killed in the desert city of Palmyra in an attack by a member of Syria’s internal security forces who shared the extremist group’s ideology.
