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Trump shocks allies and advisers with plan to pull US troops out of Syria
LBN thread: U.S. weighs complete withdrawal of troops from Syria: U.S. officials
Related GD thread: The Pentagon did not know about Trump's plan for withdrawing troops from Syria
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Source: The Guardian
Trump shocks allies and advisers with plan to pull US troops out of Syria
Administration nears end of campaign to retake territory once held by Isis as Trump tweets: ‘We have defeated Isis in Syria’
Julian Borger in Washington and Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent
Wed 19 Dec 2018 19.49 GMT
Donald Trump is reported to have ordered a full, rapid withdrawal of over 2,000 US troops in Syria, declaring victory over the Islamic State, and taking allies and his own advisers by surprise.
Pentagon and state department officials were left scrambling to interpret an abrupt change in course from the US policy decided over the summer to keep forces in Syria to ensure the “enduring defeat of Isis” and act as a bulwark against Iranian influence.
Senior officials were informed of the president’s decision on Tuesday night, and after news reports of the U-turn surfaced on Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted: “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.”
Trump’s claim is at odds with his own administration’s assessments. In August this year, the Pentagon assessed there were still as many as 14,500 Isis fighters still in Syria.
“That’s intelligence that presumably sat on Trump’s desk while he proclaims victory this morning,” said Charles Lister, director of countering terrorism and extremism at the Middle East Institute, who pointed out that Isis had claimed responsibility for an attack in its former stronghold of Raqqa only minutes before Trump’s tweet.
-snip-
Administration nears end of campaign to retake territory once held by Isis as Trump tweets: ‘We have defeated Isis in Syria’
Julian Borger in Washington and Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent
Wed 19 Dec 2018 19.49 GMT
Donald Trump is reported to have ordered a full, rapid withdrawal of over 2,000 US troops in Syria, declaring victory over the Islamic State, and taking allies and his own advisers by surprise.
Pentagon and state department officials were left scrambling to interpret an abrupt change in course from the US policy decided over the summer to keep forces in Syria to ensure the “enduring defeat of Isis” and act as a bulwark against Iranian influence.
Senior officials were informed of the president’s decision on Tuesday night, and after news reports of the U-turn surfaced on Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted: “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.”
Link to tweet
Trump’s claim is at odds with his own administration’s assessments. In August this year, the Pentagon assessed there were still as many as 14,500 Isis fighters still in Syria.
“That’s intelligence that presumably sat on Trump’s desk while he proclaims victory this morning,” said Charles Lister, director of countering terrorism and extremism at the Middle East Institute, who pointed out that Isis had claimed responsibility for an attack in its former stronghold of Raqqa only minutes before Trump’s tweet.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/19/us-troops-syria-withdrawal-trump
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