QASRAK AIR BASE, Syria — U.S. forces completed their withdrawal from Qasrak air base Thursday when a final convoy of soldiers and equipment departed the site in Syria’s Hasakah province, officials for both sides confirmed. The Syrian army has now taken full control of most military sites in the country where the U.S. military was once deployed.
“U.S. forces have completed turning over all of our major bases in Syria, as part of a deliberate and conditions-based transition,” said Capt. Tim Hawkins, U.S. Central Command chief spokesperson. Hawkins added 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.”
The Qasrak handover marks the completion of the U.S. military’s turnover of all its major bases in Syria, closing out a presence that stretched more than a decade and was built primarily to counter the Islamic State group’s territorial hold — a hold IS lost in 2019, though its sleeper cells continue to stage periodic attacks in Syria, Iraq, and abroad.
Damascus frames the exit as a sovereignty milestone
Syria’s foreign ministry said the withdrawal validated its efforts to reunify the country. “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,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the U.S. departure followed 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, as well as progress in fighting the remnants of the Islamic State group.
A drawdown months in the making
U.S. forces began withdrawing from Qasrak in late February. Earlier that month, U.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.
Before the withdrawal, 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.
Convoys of trucks hauling military vehicles and equipment could be seen departing Qasrak on Thursday.
The main mission of U.S. troops in Syria has been 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.