US Pulls Back in Syria, Leaving Just One Base—and Big Questions
The United States is dramatically shrinking its military presence in Syria, pulling out of seven of its eight bases in what US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who moonlights as Washington’s special envoy for Syria, called a long-overdue reality check. “We’ve tried everything for a hundred years. None of them worked,” Barrack told Turkish network NTV on Monday, laying out the blunt rationale behind the shift.
Roughly 2,000 American troops are still stationed in Syria, most of them in the northeast, where they’ve been working alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to keep the Islamic State group (IS) from clawing its way back. But with recent withdrawals from key posts like Al-Wazir and Tel Baydar, many in the region, especially the Kurds, are worried about what’s coming next.
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“This will not be enough to stop Daesh,” said SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, using the Arabic name for IS. For years, Kurdish fighters have been the boots on the ground in the fight against IS. Now, they’re wondering whether the US is quietly stepping out the back door.
This recalibration follows the December ouster of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad and the rise of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. In a sign of changing tides, Barrack raised the American flag in Damascus in late May for the first time since the US Embassy closed in 2012.
The move fits with President Donald Trump’s ongoing push to scale back US commitments in the Middle East. Whether that leaves a power vacuum or unfinished business remains to be seen.
