US forces have withdrawn from the Al Tanf Garrison, a base in southern Syria near the borders of Iraq and Jordan, according to a report from AFP.
A Syrian military source told the outlet that the “American forces withdrew entirely from Al-Tanf base today” and went to another base in Jordan. The source added that Syrian military personnel replaced the US forces. A second source said that the US would “continue to coordinate with the base in Al-Tanf from Jordan.”
From al-Tanf, the US helped its proxy militia, known as the Syrian Free Army (previously known as the Revolutionary Commando Army), join in on the offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024.
The US still has some troops in northeast Syria, but it’s unclear how many. News of the withdrawal from Al-Tanf comes about two weeks after The Wall Street Journal reported that the US was considering a full pullout from Syria after the new Syrian government, which is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, took territory from the Kurdish-led SDF, which was the US’s main ally in Syria before the regime change.
While publicly, President Trump and senior administration officials tout the new Syrian government as a great ally, US officials acknowledged to the Journal that its military is “riddled with jihadist sympathizers, including soldiers with ties to al-Qaeda and ISIS and others who have been involved in alleged war crimes against the Kurds and Druze.”
The Trump administration appears to have changed its plans for Syria, as media reports from last year said that the US was planning to consolidate its bases in northeast Syria and move most of its forces to Al-Tanf to potentially establish a permanent presence in the country.
