The U.S. navy turned concerned in Syria within the early 2010s amid the nation’s civil conflict, and the rise of ISIS.
The Pentagon is getting ready to downsize the U.S. navy footprint in Syria within the coming weeks, citing current successes in opposition to the ISIS terrorist group.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, on April 18, introduced what the Division of Protection is characterizing as a deliberate consolidation of U.S. forces in Syria. Parnell mentioned Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered this drive discount plan.
The U.S. navy turned concerned in Syria within the early 2010s amid the nation’s civil conflict, and the rise of ISIS; an internationally-designated Salafi Sunni terrorist group that at its top had declared a territorial caliphate spanning jap Syria and western Iraq.
The US had supported insurgent teams combating to drive Syria’s Bashar al-Assad from energy, however formally dedicated troops to Syria in 2014 on a extra confined mission to cease ISIS. This counter-ISIS effort was dubbed Operation Inherent Resolve.
“This consolidation displays the numerous steps we’ve got made towards degrading ISIS’ attraction and operational functionality regionally and globally,” Parnell mentioned. “This deliberate and conditions-based course of will carry the U.S. footprint in Syria right down to lower than a thousand U.S. forces within the coming months.”
The Epoch Occasions reached out to the Pentagon for extra particulars concerning the troop drawdown and the timeline for this course of however didn’t obtain a response by publication time.
Explaining the reporting discrepancy, Ryder mentioned on the time that round 900 troops present the core U.S. navy component in Syria, however that this core component had been bolstered by short-term rotations of extra troops.
The U.S. navy has boosted its general troops all through the Center East because the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assaults throughout southern Israel.
Parnell mentioned U.S. forces will stay vigilant as they scale back the troop footprint in Syria.
Whereas Parnell introduced persevering with success in degrading ISIS in Syria, the nation has been in a state of flux since final fall. In late November 2024, a coalition of Syrian insurgent teams, spearheaded by Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham, launched a shock offensive that scattered Assad’s forces and drove the Syrian president to flee the nation and abandon his declare to energy.
Hay‘at Tahrir al-Sham is one other Sunni Islamist faction that has roots in al Nusra, a Syrian offshoot of al Qaeda. The US continues to designate Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham as a overseas terrorist group, though the group has sought to rebrand itself as a extra reasonable drive inside Syria since capturing the capital metropolis of Damascus in December.
Ahmed al Sharaa, the chief of Hay‘at Tahrir al-Sham, ditched his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani shortly after his group seized energy. Sharaa has since positioned himself because the interim president of Syria, and lots of of his Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham associates have crammed different positions in a newly declared interim authorities.