US forces to leave Syria by end of April: WSJ

By Umar Farooq</p> <p>WASHINGTON (AA) – The U.S. military is planning to withdraw all American troops from Syria by the end of April, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.</p> <p>Former and current U.S. officials told the newspaper that with U.S.-backed fighters poised to seize the final Syrian sanctuaries held by Daesh in the coming days, Washington will look to the withdrawal of troops in the coming weeks.</p> <p>The military has planned for a large portion of its forces to be pulled out from the region by mid-March and then the rest by the end of April, the Journal added.</p> <p>President Donald Trump made the unexpected decision in December to withdraw all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria, drawing criticism from many allies and security aides, including his own Cabinet.</p> <p>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has since said Turkey is ready to assume a counterterrorism role in the war-ravaged country after the withdrawal. </p> <p>The U.S. and Turkey have been working on a plan, the Manbij deal, which focuses on the withdrawal of YPG/PKK terrorists from the city to stabilize the region, which is located in the northern part of Syria’s Aleppo province.</p> <p>Turkey has also vowed to carry out a counterterrorism operation in Syria, east of the Euphrates, following two similar successful operations since 2016.</p> <p>However, Washington and Ankara have so far made little progress, current and former U.S. officials told the Journal, and therefore the U.S. military withdrawal is proceeding faster than the political track.</p> <p>&quot;The bottom line is: Decisions have to be made,” one U.S. official told the Journal. &quot;At some point, we make political progress, or they’re going to have to tell the military to slow down, or we’re going to proceed without a political process.&quot;</p> <p>