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The United States announced on Wednesday that it had begun withdrawing its forces from Syria and officials said the country was planning to withdraw all its troops now that it has ended its campaign reclaiming territories formerly occupied by the Islamic State.
"We have started sending American troops to our home now that we have moved on to the next phase of this campaign," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement after the visit. US President Donald Trump. , tweeted that "we defeated the Islamic State in Syria, my only reason to be there."
We defeated the Islamic State in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency.
Sarah's statement did not immediately indicate whether the approximately 2,000 US troops deployed in the country would leave and, if so, on what date . He hinted that Washington would continue to engage to some extent, according to Reuters.
Sanders recalled that "five years ago, employment insurance was a very powerful and dangerous force in the Middle East, and now the United States has defeated the territorial caliphate".
According to the Pentagon, IE controls only 1% of the territory that it eventually dominated in 2014, when it proclaimed a caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
"The United States and our allies are ready to resume engagement at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to reject the territories, the funding and the support for radical Islamist terrorists, "said Sanders.
The decision of a complete withdrawal, if confirmed, contradicts the badumptions about a long-term US military presence in Syria, which senior US officials have postulated to ensure that the Islamic State does not can not rebuild. .
It could also reduce Washington's influence in the region and undermine diplomatic efforts to end a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Syria and displaced about half of the 22 million people in the region. 39 inhabitants before the conflict.
The US State Department will remove all its staff from Syria within 24 hours, a senior US official told Reuters.
Critics of a total military retreat were the subject of immediate criticism, including by some Trump Republican colleagues.
Trump has already expressed his keen desire to recall his troops when possible, and his tweet on Wednesday showed that he saw no other reason to stay.
US officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity did not disclose the details of the deliberations on the withdrawal of troops, and on the occasion was not clear.
But a senior official told Reuters that his partners and allies had been consulted. Two others said that a decision had already been made, but that it was not immediately possible to confirm it.
According to Efe, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu said that he respected the US decision to withdraw from Syria and warned that his country would "protect itself" from the new situation.
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