U.S. completes full troop withdrawal from Syria - Damascus

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The United States has fully withdrawn its military contingent from Syria after completing its counter-terrorism mission, according to a statement by the Syrian Foreign Ministry, as reported by "Rossiyskaya Gazeta".

The Syrian Foreign Ministry emphasized that the handover of U.S. military facilities to national army control was coordinated with Washington and carried out with all necessary security measures in place.

According to AFP, after the departure of the U.S.-led international coalition, Syrian forces took control of a military base in the northeastern province of Al-Hasakah. AFP journalists also observed a column of American armored vehicles moving in the area of Qamishli towards the border with Iraq.

One of the last abandoned facilities was the Kasrak base, which had served as a major U.S. outpost in northeastern Syria. In recent months, it functioned as a logistics hub for supplying and transporting equipment to Iraq.

Earlier, the Syrian army also took control of the Rmeilan base in the same province after coalition forces departed. Additionally, over the past few months, U.S. units have left the At-Tanf base in the southeast and Ash-Shadadi in the northeast.

Information about the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops emerged in February, when AFP sources reported that Washington intended to complete the drawdown of its military mission in Syria within the next month.

U.S. military presence in Syria began in 2014 amid a large-scale offensive by ISIS, during which militants seized significant territories in Syria and Iraq. For many years, Washington also supported Kurdish militias in northeastern Syria, but this year U.S. authorities stated that the strategic goals of this cooperation had largely been achieved.