WASHINGTON: The
US military has confirmed that the order to withdraw American troops from Syria
had been signed, after President Donald Trump held talks with his Turkish
counterpart to negotiate a pullout that has stunned Washignton's allies.  Trump announced Wednesday that the roughly
2,000 US troops would leave civil war-racked Syria, where they have been
deployed to assist in a multinational fight against the Islamic State (IS)
jihadist group.

"The execute
order for Syria has been signed," a US military spokesperson told AFP on
Sunday in response to a query, without providing further details. Turkey was a
rare ally that lauded Trump's decision on Syria, a country where it will now
have a freer rein to target Kurdish fighters who were armed and trained by the
US and played a major role in the war against IS but are deemed terrorists by
Ankara.

'We've won'

Trump and
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone on Sunday and "agreed to
ensure coordination between their countries' military, diplomatic and other
officials to avoid a power vacuum which could result following any abuse of the
withdrawal and transition phase in Syria," the Turkish presidency said in a
statement. Trump tweeted that he and Erdogan "discussed (IS), our mutual
involvement in Syria, & the slow & highly coordinated pullout of US
troops from the area."

White House aides
cited by The Washington Post said Trump's advisors have persuaded him to
withdraw the troops more slowly than he would like in order not to jeopardize
their safety. A withdrawal could have extraordinary geopolitical implications,
and it runs counter to long-established US policy for the region. Thousands of
IS jihadists are thought to remain in Syria, but Trump on Wednesday declared
that "we've won against ISIS," using another acronym for the
extremists. Late Sunday he tweeted that Erdogan had assured him that any IS
fighters remaining will be eliminated. "President @RT_Erdogan of Turkey
has very strongly informed me that he will eradicate whatever is left of ISIS
in Syria," Trump said in a Tweet.

An already
devastated region

Repeating a
pattern of admiring comments towards global strongmen, Trump added that Erdogan
"is a man who can do it." The US president concluded: "Our
troops are coming home!" US politicians-including those from his own
Republican party-and international allies fear the withdrawal is premature and
would further destabilize the already devastated region. A US pullout, said
Mutlu Civiroglu, a Kurdish affairs analyst, will open the way "for Turkey
to start its operations against the Kurds, and a bloody war will begin."
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday said he "deeply regretted"
Trump's decision, and that "an ally must be reliable."

Israel has been
careful to point out that it respects the US decision, but analysts say that
beneath those public pronouncements are concerns over whether its main enemy
Iran will have a freer hand. US troops will leave under the auspices of a new
Pentagon chief set to start next month, after Jim Mattis resigned from the post
citing major differences, including on Syria, with the often-impulsive Trump.
Several US politicians from both parties rejected Trump's claim that IS had
been defeated. The decision also caused alarm and dismay in the US military
over the prospect of suddenly abandoning Washington's Kurdish partners.

Turmoil

Trump's sudden
decision sparked turmoil within his administration, prompting the resignation
of Brett McGurk, the special envoy to the anti-IS coalition, as well as Mattis.
Plans for the troop pullout will now be overseen by Deputy Secretary of Defense
Patrick Shanahan, who Trump on Sunday said would replace Mattis starting
January 1.

Mattis, 68, had
said he would leave at the end of February to allow a smooth transition for the
next chief of the US military-but a reportedly angry Trump accelerated his
departure by two months. "And now Trump gets rid of SecDef Mattis almost
immediately. No smooth transition. No effort at reassurance to allies. Just
vindictive," Carl Bildt, a former Swedish prime minister and now co-chair
of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said on Twitter. According to US
media, Trump voiced resentment over news coverage of Mattis' stinging
resignation letter that laid bare his fundamental disagreements with the
president.

Days later,
special envoy McGurk made a similar move, saying he could not support Trump's
Syria decision that "left our coalition partners confused and our fighting
partners bewildered." Unlike Mattis, Shanahan has never served in the
military and has spent most of his career in the private sector, including with
aircraft giant Boeing. Until Trump finds a permanent Pentagon chief, Shanahan will
lead plans for US troops to leave Syria along with a significant drawdown in
Afghanistan, both of which critics worry will leave war-torn regions at risk of
continued and potentially heightened bloodshed. - AFP