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3. U.S. to Withdraw All Troops From Syria, Officials Announced

U.S. officials announced on Wednesday that troops stationed in Syria will be completely withdrawn over the next two months, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Currently, around 1,000 U.S. personnel are in Syria and will leave through a “deliberate and conditions-based transition,” the official said.

They also commented that U.S. forces will continue to be responsive against any threats emanating from the Islamic State and will take part in joint efforts with regional partners to crack down on any resurgence. 

The U.S. has been in the process of drawing down the presence of U.S. forces in Syria. Last week, the al-Tanf base near the tri-point border between Syria, Iraq, and Jordan was evacuated and handed over to Syrian government forces, and the al-Shaddadi base near Hakaseh in northeastern Syria was also transferred to Damascus as it established its control in formerly SDF-held territory.

U.S. policy towards Syrian security has seen large shifts since Ahmed al-Sharaa took power in December 2024. The U.S. had established a military presence in Syria in the 2010s to combat the Islamic State with an ally in the Kurdish-led SDF and an adversarial and unreliable Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus. 

The al-Sharaa regime has since become a U.S. partner in the Middle East, joining the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in November 2025 and exchanging reliable counterterrorism intelligence. 

With a reliable and capable partner in Damascus, the U.S. policy towards Syria has shifted to strengthening a united Syria under the new government without a need for maintaining U.S. troops or supporting regional actors such as the SDF, which is in the process of being integrated into the Syrian state.

The U.S. official commented that “U.S. presence at scale is no longer required in Syria given the Syrian government’s willingness to take primary responsibility for combating the terrorist threat within its borders”