US completes withdrawal from key base in Syria as part of a larger drawdown

QASRAK AIR BASE, Syria (AP) — U.S. forces completed their withdrawal from Qasrak air base on Thursday when a final convoy of soldiers and equipment departed the site in Syria’s Hasakah province, officials for both sides said.

The Syrian army has now taken full control of most military sites in the country where the U.S. military was once deployed.

Syria’s foreign ministry said in a statement that “the Syrian state’s restoration of sovereignty over areas that were outside its control, including the northeast and border regions, is the result of the Syrian government’s continuous efforts to unify the country within the framework of a single state.”

It said that the U.S. withdrawal came as a result of the successful implementation of a deal between Syria’s central government in Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces — which had previously controlled much of northeast Syria — and of success in fighting the remnants of the Islamic State group.

U.S. Central Command chief spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins confirmed the withdrawal.

“U.S. forces have completed turning over all of our major bases in Syria, as part of a deliberate and conditions-based transition,” Hawkins said, adding that the U.S. military will “continue to support partner-led counterterrorism efforts, which are essential to ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS and strengthening regional security.”

Convoys of trucks could be seen leaving the base Thursday, hauling military vehicles and equipment.

U.S. forces began withdrawing from Qasrak in late February, in what appeared to be part of a larger drawdown of U.S. forces in Syria. Earlier that month, the U.S. military’s Central Command and Syria’s defense ministry announced that U.S. troops had left the al-Tanf base in eastern Syria near the border with Jordan.

The departure of U.S. forces from the bases came after the U.S. military completed the transfer of some 5,700 accused Islamic State militants from detention centers in northeast Syria to prisons in Iraq, where they will be put on trial.

The main mission of the U.S. troops in Syria is to prevent a resurgence of IS. The extremist group lost control of the last territory it held in Syria in 2019 but its sleeper cells have continued to stage periodic attacks in Syria, Iraq and abroad.

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Toropin reported from Washington.