U.S. troops not abandoning its bases inside Syria, Pentagon says

The Pentagon is denying reports by Iranian state media that U.S. military forces abandoned three bases inside Syria used in the fight against the Islamic State.

An unidentified “military source” on Wednesday told the Al-Alam news channel that U.S. forces left the bases following their evacuation of Kabul after the quick collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan army. One of the bases on the list was near the al-Omar oilfield in the eastern province of the Deir el-Zour region.

“These reports are not true. There is no change to the [Syria] mission,” Marine Corps Lt. Col. Tony Semelroth, a Department of Defense spokesman said Thursday.

While President Biden said he wanted to end America’s “forever wars” in Afghanistan and elsewhere, there are no signs the deployment in the midst of the Syrian civil war is being reconsidered. A U.S. defense official told Politico that no American troops have accompanied local forces on combat patrols for more than a year. But American forces in Syria have come under fire on multiple occasions, from both drone and rocket attacks.

The U.S. mission in Syria, working with Syrian Kurdish rebel forces, also was seen as a way to check Russian military activity in the region and its growing influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russia currently maintains a naval base in the port city of Tartus and the nearby Hmeimim Air Base, which has been used by Russian fighter pilots to attack forces opposed to the Assad regime’s rule.