By Meryem Goktas</p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – A group of U.S. senators sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressing grave concern over his decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria and asked him to reconsider the move.</p> <p>The letter by six senators was shared on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s official Twitter account.</p> <p>"We believe that such action at this time is a premature and costly mistake that not only threatens the safety and security of the United States but also emboldens ISIS [Daesh], Bashar al Assad, Iran and Russia," their statement said. </p> <p>Trump said earlier in the day that the U.S.-led coalition has succeeded in defeating the Daesh terrorist group, suggesting that a withdrawal of U.S. troops was imminent.</p> <p>"We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," he said on Twitter. </p> <p>Trump later announced that all of the U.S.'s roughly 2,000 troops in northeastern Syria would be leaving.</p> <p>"It's time for our troops to come back home," he said in a pre-recorded video message posted on Twitter. "Our boys, our young women, our men — they're all coming back, and they're coming back now."</p> <p>The senators noted in the letter that the troops provide "critical support" to America’s Kurdish partners in the fight against Daesh.</p> <p>"If our Kurdish partners in the region lose the support of the United States, we run the risk of a resurgence of ISIS and the possible capitulation or all out destruction of Kurdish resistance in the region,” they added.</p> <p>The U.S. has been working alongside the YPG/PKK in Syria in an effort to eliminate Daesh from the region. </p> <p>Turkey views the YPG as the Syrian extension of the PKK, a designated terrorist group in Turkey, the EU and the U.S.</p> <p>Graham had earlier drawn parallels between Trump's decision and the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq under former President Barack Obama, a development that many Republicans link to the rise of Daesh. </p> <p>Trump’s withdrawal decision comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to launch a military operation in northeastern Syria against the YPG/PKK.</p> <p>Ankara has carried out two separate military operations in northern Syria in the past. </p> <p>The U.S. had warned publicly against a new operation in northeastern Syria as it works alongside the YPG-led SDF, which is fighting Daesh in its last remaining major foothold in eastern Syria.
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