Syria said Thursday it had taken control of all military bases hosting US troops who were deployed in the country for years leading an international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group.
In recent months, Syria’s new Islamist government has expanded its control to parts of the country’s northeast that were previously held by US-allied Kurdish forces, while the government has also formally joined the international anti-IS coalition.
The US intervened in Syria in 2014 to fight IS, which had taken over swathes of Syria and Iraq in a lightning offensive.
Syria’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “welcomes the completed handover of military sites where United States forces were previously present in Syria to the Syrian government”, adding that the move was carried out “in full coordination between the Syrian and American governments”.
Damascus said it viewed the US move as reflecting “a shared assessment that the circumstances which originally necessitated the American military presence in Syria… have fundamentally changed”.
“The Syrian state is today fully capable of leading counterterrorism efforts from within, in cooperation with the international community,” it added.
US Central Command, which is responsible for American troops in the Middle East, told AFP that US forces “have completed turning over all of our major bases in Syria, as part of a deliberate and conditions-based transition”.
“US forces continue to support partner-led counterterrorism efforts, which are essential to ensuring the enduring defeat” of IS, the military command added.
Earlier Thursday, Syria’s defence ministry said the army “took over the Qasrak air base… after the withdrawal of international coalition forces”.
A defence ministry official told AFP that the base is now “empty of American forces after they fully withdrew”, while an AFP correspondent near the northeastern city of Qamishli saw a convoy of US military vehicles heading towards the Iraqi border.
– ‘Sustained efforts’ –
Qasrak was considered a key US base in northeast Syria and served in recent months as a logistics hub for convoys and military equipment heading for Iraq.
In February, days before the Middle East war erupted, three sources told AFP that US forces leading the anti-IS coalition would complete their withdrawal from Syria within a month.
Syria’s Kurds lost swathes of territory to government forces earlier this year following clashes between the sides, who then agreed a deal to gradually integrate the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Kurdish civilian institutions into the state.
Alongside the US-led coalition against IS, the SDF spearheaded the battle that led to the jihadist group’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.
The United States has however drawn close to Syria’s new Islamist authorities, and this year said the purpose of its alliance with the Kurdish forces was largely over.
Last month, Syria said it had taken over the Rmeilan base, also in Hasakeh province, after coalition forces withdrew. In recent months, American forces have also withdrawn from the Al-Tanf base in the southeast and Shadadi in the northeast.
Syria’s foreign ministry said that “the extension of Syrian state authority over areas that had previously been outside its control… is the result of the Syrian government’s sustained efforts to unify the country within the framework of a single state”.
The handover also “reflects the successful integration of the Syrian Democratic Forces into national structures, and the Syrian state’s assumption of full responsibility for combating terrorism and addressing regional threats on its territory”, the statement added
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