US withdraws all 1,000 troops from Syria, ending decade-long mission

The Wall Street Journal reported on February 18, 2026 that the US will pull all remaining roughly 1,000 troops from Syria within two months. The withdrawal ends a military presence that started in September 2014 when the Obama administration launched airstrikes against ISIS positions alongside Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Ground forces followed in 2015 to support the Kurdish YPG and later the Syrian Democratic Forces.

US troops already departed two major bases before the full withdrawal announcement. Forces left the al-Tanf garrison near the Iraq-Jordan-Syria border on February 11, and the Syrian army took control through what both sides called coordinated handover. On February 15, the Syrian army also took over the al-Shaddadi base in northeast Syria.

The withdrawal follows a January 30 ceasefire and integration agreement between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led SDF. Under the deal, SDF units are being reorganized into newly formed brigades embedded within Syrian Arab Army divisions, with the SDF maintaining four brigades within the structure. The US pushed both sides to negotiate, seeing internal cohesion as the key to American disengagement.

Syria's transitional president AAAhmad al-Sharaa went from the US terrorism sanctions list to the White House in roughly one year. Trump met al-Sharaa in Riyadh in May 2025, al-Sharaa spoke at the UN General Assembly, and he visited 🌲Washington in November 2025. The US removed him from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list that same month and issued a 180-day waiver under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act to ease sanctions.

Before withdrawing, US forces ran a 23-day airlift transferring more than 5,700 ISIS detainees from Syrian prisons to Iraqi custody, completed on February 12. The detainees included 3,543 Syrians, 467 Iraqis, 710 from other Arab countries, and over 980 foreigners from Europe, Asia, Australia, and the US. Human Rights Watch warned on February 17 that the transferred detainees face risks of enforced disappearance, unfair trials, and torture in Iraqi detention.

The Syrian government launched a military offensive against Kurdish-held territory starting January 6, 2026, attacking Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo and declaring them closed military zones. The offensive displaced more than 150,000 people and expanded to Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Al-Hasakah before the January 30 ceasefire.

ISIS claimed responsibility for 294 attacks in Syria in 2024, up from 121 in 2023, according to UN estimates. Analysts at Foreign Affairs wrote in February 2026 that the group is actively rebuilding in Syria just as US forces prepare to leave. However, ISIS attacks dropped 50% after Assad fell and al-Sharaa's government took over, with casualties declining 76%.

The president can order this withdrawal without congressional approval because no formal declaration of war or specific statutory authorization ever covered the Syria deployment. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops and sets a 60-day limit without authorization, but presidents of both parties have treated it as advisory rather than binding. In 2019, the House voted 354-60 to condemn Trump's earlier partial Syria withdrawal, but the nonbinding resolution had no legal force.