In his phone call with President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly promised that Turkey would take responsibility for finishing off the Islamic State group if the U.S. pulled out of Syria, a senior White House official tells NBC News.
“Erdogan said to the president, ‘In fact, as your friend, I give you my word in this,’” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose details of a presidential phone call.
A second U.S. official confirmed that Erdogan had said during the call that Turkey could deal with any remaining ISIS fighters if Turkey were able to operate in northern Syria....
Trump tweeted Saturday that the U.S. had stayed in Syria far longer than originally envisioned and claimed that when he took office “ISIS was going wild.”
“Now ISIS is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains,” Trump wrote. “We’re coming home!”
The green landscape of rural northeastern Syria is home to wild ducks and donkeys, villagers tending cattle — and U.S. military bases housing 2,200 troops. American soldiers patrol the countryside in armored vehicles and hover overhead in Black Hawk helicopters. In the Kurdish-majority area known as Rojava, towns are bursting with Christmas decorations. Holiday lights adorn almost every main street in the city of Qamishli, whose diverse population includes many Christians, and shops are selling tinsel and plastic trees.
But President Trump's sudden decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria has overshadowed most of this year's celebrations. Syrians who have made the U.S. troops feel welcome here say they are shocked and upset by the news. Some are calling it a "stab in the back."
This is the part of Syria where U.S. troops have backed up local fighters in forcing ISIS out of nearly all the nearby cities and towns they once held. The Syrians — led by Kurdish fighters — have lost thousands in the fight, and some feel their sacrifices aren't being acknowledged or repaid.
This week, NPR tried to gain access to a few of the U.S. bases but was told the American troops there are not authorized to comment. Syrian civilians working and living near the bases, though, spoke openly about how they felt — and many say they feel betrayed by Trump's decision.
Hatem Hassan, 37, runs a money exchange shop in Qamishli. He says Trump's decision hits close to home.
"If they will leave, we will curse them as traitors," he says. "The Kurds helped them to destroy ISIS. ... I have seven people from my family who were fighting ISIS and who were killed. And they were very young, not even in their 20s."
Haji Haidar, 39, is standing outside his blacksmith shop. Everyone here is angry and scared, he says.
"All the work they did together, and now they are leaving so suddenly," he says. "I don't understand it. People are afraid that they will just sell the country to someone."
The Syrian Democratic Forces, the U.S.-backed Kurdish group, says it is scrambling to put together a backup plan now. Two SDF spokesman told NPR they heard the news of the U.S. withdrawal last week the same way as everyone else: while watching television.
The SDF includes Christian fighters and commanders who may not make it home for Christmas this year, as they prepare for whatever comes next.
"At this point, we are open to all options and partnerships," Mustafa Bali, an SDF spokesman, tells NPR. "ISIS is not yet defeated and there are still many sleeper cells to take care of."
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The stakes are especially urgent for Syria's Kurds, who make up the bulk of the population in the northeast, along the Turkish border, and have been the closest U.S. allies.
Turkey has been threatening to attack the Kurds here. It views them as terrorists because of their links to militants who stage attacks in Turkey. Turkey has criticized the U.S. for helping the Kurds shore up control of this region and has indicated it could invade as soon as U.S. forces are out.
If Turkey chooses to invade, the SDF may have to abandon fighting ISIS, Bali says.
"You can't have your forces being busy fighting ISIS while another country comes in from behind and attacks your people and forces," he says.
The resignation of US defence secretary James Mattis was triggered by a phone conversation between Donald Trump and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in which Trump abruptly decided to upend previous US policy and withdraw troops from Syria, according to new accounts of the call.
Mattis went to see the president on Thursday afternoon in a last-ditch attempt to change the president’s mind, and argue for standing by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have take the lead role in ejecting the Islamic State from its Syrian strongholds.
Mattis had already composed a resignation letter that did not mention the SDF or Syria but repeatedly referred to the importance to US national security of respecting allies, and confronting strategic adversaries.
Trump rebuffed Mattis’s arguments over the course of a 45-minute meeting. Trump had already recorded a video in the White House garden, announcing he was bringing the troops home, and it had been shown to Mattis.
At the end of the meeting Mattis took Trump by surprise by presenting his resignation letter. According to the New York Times, Mattis ordered 50 copies to be made and circulated around the Pentagon on his return to his office.
Accounts in the US and Turkish press of the Friday call between Trump and Erdoğan show the volatile US president complying with the Turkish leader’s demands and taking his own advisers by surprise.
It is the latest example of a pattern in which Trump tends to side with authoritarian foreign leaders, over the advice of US officials.
American military leaders are "constantly apologizing" for President Donald Trump's Syria withdrawal plan, according to the commander who oversees a force of 65,000 U.S.-backed fighters that's battling the Islamic State.
“It was a joint war, but they left us in the middle of the road,” said Gen. Mazlum Kobane, who is in charge of the coalition of militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.
U.S. troops and Kurdish-led fighters were "brothers in arms" as partners on the ground in the war against ISIS in Syria, he added.
Kobane highlighted that Trump's decision, which was widely seen as the abandonment of a loyal ally, was made against the advice of some U.S. commanders.
“They are embarrassed,” Kobane said, referring to his American counterparts. “They didn’t expect this decision. It’s out of their hands, and they are constantly apologizing for it.”
