Leaving some troops in Syria

Sarah Sanders says Trump is leaving some troops in Syria to ensure peaceful withdrawal

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that the administration’s decision to leave a small contingent of U.S. troops in Syria was a result of the president’s desire to avoid destabilizing the region.

Sanders said in an interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that the plan is to have roughly 200 troops remain as a small peacekeeping force but cautioned that there is no “specific number” in mind.

“We're in constant contact with our allies, we’re gonna continue to be in communication with them,” she said. “At the end of the day the president wants to bring our troops home and he is working towards that and he wants to do that in a safe and peaceful way, in the best way possible, to make sure we have complete safety for our troops abroad.”

Sanders’ announcement comes a day after President Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and “agreed to continue coordinating on the creation of a potential safe zone,” according to the White House.

It also comes after members of Congress reportedly lambasted acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan over Trump's decision to quickly draw down the U.S. presence there.

One of those members, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), applauded the White House’s decision on Thursday to keep some troops in Syria, lauding Trump for deciding “to follow sound military advice.”

Critics of Trump’s troop withdrawal have taken issue with his insistence that Islamic State militants there are close to defeat, and have aired concerns that without a U.S. presence there or some sort of buffer zone, U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters will be targeted by Turkey.

Graham, who confronted Shanahan at last weekend’s Munich Security Conference, had been urging European countries to send more troops to Syria to assist in U.S. efforts to create a safe zone, which he hoped would convince Trump to leave some American forces behind.

“This decision will ensure that we will not repeat the mistakes of Iraq, in Syria,” Graham said in a statement Thursday, adding that "for a small fraction of the forces we have had in Syria, we can accomplish or [sic] national security objectives."