Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has granted him military and diplomatic victories, giving Moscow an edge in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
The White House has announced that the Pentagon will begin withdrawing troops from Syria, where Russia has outpaced the United States amid their rival military campaigns.
U. S. soldiers were deployed to Syria as part of a campaign launched in 2014 to defeat the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), which had taken over half the country as well as neighboring Iraq. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that, amid recent victories against the final pocket of jihadi control off the eastern banks of the Euphrates in Syria, the administration has «started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign.»
She added that «the United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorist territory, funding, support, and any means of infiltrating our borders.»
On the other side of the Euphrates, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad—an ally of Iran and Russia once on the verge of defeat by a U. S.-backed rebel and jihadi uprising—waged a separate campaign against ISIS. With the Syrian government having re-established control over much of the country and the U. S. set to end a presence declared illegal by Assad in the first place, Moscow’s partner may be set to officially win back the entirety of his state.
Russian and Syrian forces stand guard near posters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as civilians cross into government-held territory at the Abu al-Duhur crossing on the eastern edge of Idlib province, August 20. The northwestern province is the last under the control of an Islamist-led insurgency, leaving elsewhere only land held by the U. S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces outside government control. GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images
Though both united in their opposition toward ISIS, the U. S.-backed and Russia-backed campaigns in Syria diverged in their political goals. Russian President Vladimir Putin opposed tacit CIA support for insurgents, having witnessed Libya descend into chaos after a rebellion backed by the NATO Western military alliance successfully overthrew longtime leader Muammar el-Qaddafi. As the U. S. began to abandon its partnership with what had become a largely Islamist-led insurgency in Syria and sided with a more neutral Kurdish faction known as the Syrian Democratic Forces in 2015, Russia stepped indirectly on behalf of Assad.
Backed by Russian airpower and pro-government militias, many of which were among the regional Shiite Muslim forces mobilized by Iran, the Syrian armed forces retook major cities and increasingly isolated the opposition as troops reversed ISIS gains nationwide. The Syrian Democratic Forces concurrently ousted ISIS out of northeastern Syria and, last week, won a major battle against the last town under the jihadis’ control.
Washington officials have offered conflicting statements on whether or not the official U.
