Pentagon chief says US troops leaving Syria for western Iraq

Mark Esper in Afghanistan (AP)
KABUL: US Defense Secretary Mark Esper says that under current plans all US troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq and the American military will continue to conduct operations against the Islamic State group to prevent its resurgence.
Esper, who arrived in the Afghan capital on Sunday, did not rule out the idea that US forces would conduct counter-terrorism missions from Iraq into Syria. But he told reporters traveling with him that those details will be worked out over time.
The developments made clear that one of President Donald Trump's rationales for withdrawing troops from Syria was not going to come to pass any time soon. "It's time to bring our soldiers back home,'' Trump said Wednesday. But they are not coming home.
As Esper left Washington on Saturday, US troops were continuing to pull out of northern Syria after Turkey's invasion into the border region. Reports of sporadic clashes continued between Turkish-backed fighters and the US-allied Syria Kurdish forces despite a five-day cease-fire agreement hammered out Thursday between US and Turkish leaders.
Turkey's defense ministry says one soldier has been killed amid sporadic clashes with Kurdish fighters.
Trump ordered the bulk of the approximately 1,000 US troops in Syria to withdraw after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made it clear in a phone call that his forces were about to invade Syria to push back Kurdish forces that Turkey considers terrorists.
The pullout largely abandons America's Kurdish allies who have fought IS alongside US troops for several years. Between 200 and 300 US troops will remain at the southern Syrian outpost of Al-Tanf.
Esper said the troops going into Iraq will have two missions.
"One is to help defend Iraq and two is to perform a counter-ISIS mission as we sort through the next steps,'' he said. "Things could change between now and whenever we complete the withdrawal, but that's the game plan right now.''
He said one of his top concerns is what the next phase of the counter-IS missions looks like, "but we have to work through those details. He said that if US forces do go in, they would be protected by American aircraft.
He also said that, so far, the Syrian Democratic Forces that partnered with the US to fight IS have maintained control of the prisons in Syria where they are still present. The Turks, he said, have indicated they have control of the IS prisons in their areas.
"I can't assess whether that's true or not without having people on the ground,'' said Esper.
He added that the US withdrawal will be deliberate and safe, and it will take "weeks not days.''
According to a US official, about a couple hundred troops have left Syria so far. The US forces have been largely consolidated in one location in the west and a few locations in the east.
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