American soldiers patrol northeastern Syria, in the Hasakeh province, mainly controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, on Jan. 9, 2025. (Credit: Delil Souleiman / AFP)
The United States announced on Friday that it will reduce its military presence in Syria by half, claiming to have “successfully” fought against the Islamic State (ISIS), even though jihadist groups remain active in the still-fragile country. The decision comes nearly three months after Donald Trump took office, having long opposed the U.S. presence there and advocating a return to an isolationist American foreign policy.
The U.S. has maintained a military presence in Syria for years, notably as part of the international coalition against ISIS. That presence will be cut “to fewer than a thousand troops in the coming months,” down from around 2,000 currently, said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell in a statement. “This consolidation demonstrates the significant steps we’ve taken to degrade the appeal and operational capabilities of ISIS, both in the region and globally,” he said, highlighting the broader “success of the United States against ISIS.”
‘Not our fight’
Donald Trump, who took office in Washington on Jan. 20, has long been skeptical of the U.S. military presence in Syria. The fall of Bashar al-Assad in late December — replaced by an Islamist-led coalition — did not alter his stance. “Syria is a mess, but it’s not our friend, […] it’s not our fight,” Trump wrote in December during the offensive that ended fifty years of Assad family rule.
The takeover of large parts of Syria and Iraq by ISIS starting in 2014 triggered the intervention of an international coalition led by the United States, primarily aimed at supporting, through airstrikes, Iraqi army units and Kurdish forces fighting ISIS on the ground. But Washington also deployed thousands of its own troops to support these local forces and conduct its own military operations.
Following the declared victory over ISIS — in 2017 in Iraq and 2019 in Syria — a U.S. military presence remained, mainly in the northeast of Syria controlled by Kurdish forces, to continue targeting remaining jihadist cells. At the end of December, the administration of former Democratic President Joe Biden, then in power, had announced an increase in U.S. troop levels in Syria in the preceding months, even though Washington had long claimed to maintain 900 troops in the country.
The U.S. military “will remain ready to carry out strikes against what remains of ISIS in Syria,” said the Pentagon spokesperson on Friday, adding that the U.S. retains “significant capabilities in the region.” The United States currently has about 2,500 troops in Iraq, a presence that is also expected to decrease.
Security in Syria remains fragile following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, after nearly 14 years of war sparked by the violent repression of anti-government protests in 2011. Now led by a transitional authority dominated by former Islamist rebels, Syria’s security forces face the heavy responsibility of maintaining order in a multiethnic and multireligious country where numerous armed groups — including jihadists — are still active.
The United States announced on Friday that it will reduce its military presence in Syria by half, claiming to have “successfully” fought against the Islamic State (ISIS), even though jihadist groups remain active in the still-fragile country. The decision comes nearly three months after Donald Trump took office, having long opposed the U.S. presence there and advocating a return to an isolationist American foreign policy.The U.S. has maintained a military presence in Syria for years, notably as part of the international coalition against ISIS. That presence will be cut “to fewer than a thousand troops in the coming months,” down from around 2,000 currently, said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell in a statement. “This consolidation demonstrates the significant steps we’ve taken to degrade the appeal and...
