Top General in Middle East says U.S. troop levels will drop in Iraq and Syria

WASHINGTON — The top American military commander in the Middle East said Wednesday that U.S. troop levels in Iraq and Syria would most likely shrink in the coming months but that he had not yet received orders to begin withdrawing forces.

Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., head of the Pentagon’s Central Command, said the 5,200 troops in Iraq to help fight remnants of the Islamic State and train Iraqi forces “will be adjusted” after consultations with the government in Baghdad.

McKenzie said he expected American and other NATO forces to maintain “a long-term presence” in Iraq — both to help fight Islamic extremists and to check Iranian influence in the country. He declined to say how large that presence might be, but other American officials said discussions with Iraqi officials that resume this month could result in a reduction to around 3,500 U.S. troops.

Despite President Donald Trump’s demand last fall for a complete withdrawal of all 1,000 American forces from Syria, the president still has some 500 troops, mostly in the country’s northeast, assisting local Syrian Kurdish allies in combating pockets of Islamic State fighters.

McKenzie’s comments on U.S. troop levels in Iraq and Syria were consistent with what he has said in the past, but they come against the backdrop of Trump recently announcing that forces in Afghanistan would shrink to about 5,000, from 8,600, by the general election in November. The president also directed the withdrawal of about 12,000 troops from Germany.

McKenzie and other American officials say the United States can afford to consider withdrawing troops from Iraq and Syria because local forces are increasingly able to counter the Islamic State on their own, with some American technical, intelligence and logistical help.