Coalition: Over 400 US Marines to Leave Syria

Marines and Artillery Ordered Home

Jason Ditz 

Posted onNovember 30, 2017CategoriesNewsTagsPentagon, Syria

According to the US-led coalition fighting ISIS, some 400 US Marines and accompanying artillery have been ordered back to the United States, with their involvement in the capture of the Syrian city of Raqqa over.

Coalition  director Brig. Gen. Jonathan Braga says that the remaining forces will continue to stay in Syria to fight against ISIS or the emergence of future ISIS groups, and to assist “international governments and NGOs.”

The presence of US troops in Syria at all is a controversial one, since Syria never authorized such a deployment. US officials, however, have indicated that they don’t intend to leave,and that the deployment as such is open-ended.

What this does to official US troop levels in Syria isn’t clear. Obviously the US claim that 502 troops are in Syria was false, but the coalition statement is an official one, and might oblige the US to claim they’re now down to 100, despite there being well in excess of 1,000 US troops in the country in actuality.