In milestone, US pulls out of strategic Syria base and hands it over to Damascus

By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Tala Ramadan

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it completed a withdrawal from a strategic base in Syria on Thursday, handing it over to Syrian forces, in the latest sign of strengthening U.S.-Syrian ties that could enable an even larger American drawdown.

The al-Tanf garrison is positioned at the tri-border confluence of Syria, Jordan and Iraq.

Established during Syria's civil war in 2014, the United States initially relied on it as a hub for operations by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State militants who once controlled a vast swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria before being defeated in 2019.

But the base became a key foothold in a battle against Iranian influence due to its strategic position along roadways linking Damascus to Tehran. Although Washington long saw keeping the base as worthwhile, the Trump administration recalculated when relations fundamentally shifted after longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December 2024.

Syria joined the coalition battling the remnants of Islamic State last November when President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander, visited the White House for talks with President Donald Trump.

David Adesnik at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think-tank in Washington questioned Syrian forces' ability to pick up the slack following the U.S. departure.

"And the Syrian army has incorporated thousands of ex-jihadists," Adesnik said.

"The mission at Tanf also served as an obstacle to the operations of Iran and its proxies, who ship weapons across Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. This is an own goal."

U.S. RESOLVED TO PREVENT ISLAMIC STATE REVIVAL

Syria's Defence Ministry said on Thursday that government forces had taken control of al-Tanf following coordination between Syrian and U.S. authorities.

The U.S. military's Central Command confirmed al-Tanf's handover in a statement and noted that the Pentagon announced plans to consolidate basing locations in Syria last year.

"U.S. forces remain poised to respond to any ISIS threats that arise in the region as we support partner-led efforts to prevent the terrorist network's resurgence," said Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads Central Command, using an acronym for Islamic State.

Reuters, citing two sources, reported on Wednesday that U.S. troops from al-Tanf were relocating to Jordan.

The U.S. pullout from al-Tanf follows a Washington-brokered deal to integrate the Syrian Democratic Forces - a Kurdish-led autonomy-minded group backed by the U.S. for a decade in the fight against IS - into central Syrian institutions.

Trump has long expressed a desire to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, going back to 2019 during his first term in office. Prior to the U.S. pullout from al-Tanf, U.S. officials had estimated there were about 1,000 troops in Syria.

One person familiar with the matter said the withdrawal from Tanf could be a milestone toward a bigger pullout. The U.S. is also winding down one of its biggest commitments on the ground in Syria - helping ensure U.S.-backed forces guard prisons holding Islamic State prisoners captured during the conflict.

The roughly one dozen prisons had been guarded by the SDF, but U.S. forces since last month have been transferring high-level Islamic State detainees out of Syria to Iraq as control of the facilities shifts to government forces.

(Reporting by Tala Ramadan; writing by Feras Dalatey; editing by Mark Heinrich)