General: U.S. troops to remain in Syria

Pressure on IS fighters must go on to prevent reemergence, he says.

As many as 600 U.S. troops will remain in northeast Syria to continue counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday.

“There will be less than 1,000 for sure,” Milley said, referring to the number present when President Donald Trump ordered their complete withdrawal last month. Trump later was persuaded by national security advisers and congressional supporters, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to retain an unspecified number of troops whose mission, the president said, was to “secure the oil” from a takeover.

Milley, speaking on the ABC News program “This Week,” said the number of troops that would remain was “probably in the 500ish frame. Maybe 600.” He did not mention Syrian oil, but said that “there are still ISIS fighters in the region and unless pressure is maintained ... then there’s a very real possibility that conditions could be set for reemergence of ISIS.” ISIS is an alternative term for the Islamic State.

“The footprint will be small, but the objective will remain the same — the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Milley said.

Syria’s relatively small oil reserves are concentrated in the northeastern part of the country, currently under the control of U.S.-allied Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces. Black market sale of the oil by the SDF, primarily to the Syrian government, helps fund those forces.

A separate U.S. force of about 150 remains in southern Syria, on the Jordanian border.

Trump’s withdrawal announcement came after Turkey last month prepared to launch a cross-border invasion, aided by Syrian rebel forces. The administration later reached an agreement with Ankara to remove both U.S. and Kurdish forces from an area 75 miles wide and about 20 miles deep along the border.

That area is now occupied by Turkey and its Syrian allies.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he wants to use the border region to resettle up to 2 million of the approximately 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.