US to pull last troops from north Syria

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT — The United States said on Sunday it will withdraw its remaining 1,000 troops from northern Syria in the face of an expanding Turkish offensive while Syria’s army struck a deal with Kurdish forces to redeploy along its border with Turkey, both major victories for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The developments illustrate Washington’s waning influence over events in Syria and the failure of the US policy of keeping Mr. Assad from reasserting state authority over areas lost during the more than eight-year conflict with rebels trying to end his rule.

The developments also represent wins for Russia and Iran, which have backed Mr. Assad since 2011 when his violent effort to crush what began as peaceful protests against his family’s decades-long rule of Syria exploded into a full-blown civil war.

While the US withdrawal moves American troops out of the line of fire, the return of Syrian soldiers to the Turkish border opens up the possibility of a wider conflagration should the Syrian army come in direct conflict with Turkish forces.

The Turkish onslaught in northern Syria has also raised the prospect that Islamic State militants and their families held by the Kurdish forces targeted by Turkey may escape — scores were said to have done so already — and permit the group’s revival.

The remarkable turn of events was set in motion a week ago when US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw about 50 special operations forces from two outposts in northern Syria, a step widely seen as paving the way for Turkey to launch its week-long incursion against Kurdish militia in the region.

Turkey aims to neutralize the Kurdish YPG militia, the main element of Washington’s Kurdish-led ally, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has been a key US ally in dismantling the jihadist “caliphate” set up by Islamic State militants in Syria. Ankara regards the YPG as a terrorist group aligned with Kurdish insurgents in Turkey.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said the offensive would extend from Kobani in the west to Hasaka in the east and extend some 30 kilometers (19 miles) into Syrian territory, with the town of Ras al Ain now in Turkish control.

US Defense Secretary Mike Esper said the United States decided to withdraw its roughly 1,000 troops in northern Syria after learning of the deepening Turkish offensive.

It was unclear what would happen to the several hundred US troops at the American military outpost of Tanf, near Syria’s southern border with Iraq and Jordan.

Another factor behind the decision, Mr. Esper indicated in an interview with the CBS program “Face the Nation,” was that the SDF aimed to make a deal with Russia and Syria to counter the Turkish onslaught. Several hours later, the Kurdish-led administration said it had struck just such an agreement for the Syrian army to deploy along the length of the border with Turkey to help repel Ankara’s offensive. The deployment would help the SDF in countering “this aggression and liberating the areas that the Turkish army and mercenaries had entered,” it added, referring to Turkeybacked Syrian rebels, and would also allow for the liberation of other Syrian cities occupied by the Turkish army such as Afrin. —