WASHINGTON — US troops have completed their withdrawal from the strategic Al-Tanf garrison on Syria’s southern desert border with Jordan and Iraq amid a broader US military drawdown from the country.

The contingent of US soldiers previously stationed at Al-Tanf has relocated to Jordan, allowing forces aligned with the government in Damascus to take over the key crossing as part of a handover of American military bases across Syria’s northeast.

A US official confirmed to Al-Monitor that the US contingent at Al-Tanf had completely withdrawn by Wednesday. The handover of the base was facilitated by the self-styled Syrian Free Army, a militia previously trained by US troops at the site but now aligned with the government in Damascus, the official said.

Syria’s Defense Ministry confirmed that it had taken control of Al-Tanf in a statement released early on Thursday.

Why it matters: The US military’s departure from Al-Tanf closes a chapter in the Pentagon’s decade-long campaign against the Islamic State group.

US forces kicked off a high-stakes mission to evacuate some 7,000 core ISIS detainees from prisons in Syria to Iraq last month amid a Damascus offensive against Kurdish-led militias previously backed by the Pentagon, as the Trump administration pivots its support to Syria's new Islamist-led government.

The airlift is "near complete," the US official told Al-Monitor. “We have made significant progress in both degrading ISIS and going after its remnants."

The US Air Force has ramped up intermittent strikes on suspected ISIS locations throughout the country amid the ongoing troop drawdown in recent weeks, largely with aircraft based in neighboring Jordan.

The official........

© Al Monitor