Military forces of the United States have pulled out of two more bases in northeastern Syria, it was reported, after the country entered a new process under a new government recently.
Reuters reporters who visited the two bases in the past week found them mostly deserted, both guarded by small contingents of the YPG terrorist organization-dominated SDF.
Cameras used on bases occupied by the U.S.-led military coalition had been taken down, and razor wire on the outer perimeters had begun to sag.
SDF members at the second base said troops had left recently but declined to say when. The Pentagon declined to comment.
It is the first confirmation on the ground by reporters that the U.S. has withdrawn from al-Wazir and Tel Baydar bases in Hassakeh province. It brings to at least four the number of bases in Syria that U.S. troops have left since President Donald Trump took office.
Trump’s administration said this month it will scale down its military presence in Syria to one base from eight in parts of northeastern Syria. The New York Times reported in April that troops might be reduced from 2,000 to 500 in the drawdown.
Furthermore, earlier this month, the new U.S. ambassador to Türkiye and Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack similarly said that the U.S. would change its Syria policy and decrease troops there.
The YPG currently occupies one-third of Syria's territory, including most of the country's oil and gas fields. The YPG uses the name SDF to give itself an air of legitimacy. Türkiye, which suffered from cross-border attacks by the YPG, supported the Syrian opposition through military offensives in Syria’s north in the past decade and liberated parts of northern Syria from the YPG's grip.
Türkiye has urged Syria’s interim administration to address the YPG’s control over large parts of northern Syria and is currently closely monitoring the integration of the SDF into the Syrian government. Ankara is a major supporter of the Ahmed al-Sharaa-led administration and also backs the March deal.
The issue strains Turkish-U.S. ties as Ankara warns its NATO ally against aiding terror elements that threaten its national security, something Washington continues to do despite promising to remove the group from the Turkish border area.
Ferhat Abdi Şahin, code-named "Mazloum Kobani," the ringleader of the SDF who spoke to Reuters at another U.S. base, al-Shadadi, said the presence of a few hundred troops on one base would be "not enough" to contain Daesh – a pretext that Washington and the group have used for years for their cooperation.
He said the SDF long knew of the U.S. plan to decrease its presence.
Şahin spoke to Reuters on Friday, hours after Israel launched its air war on Iran. He declined to comment on how the new Israel-Iran war would affect Syria, saying simply that he hoped it would not spill over there and that he felt safe on a U.S. base.
