Last US troops leave Qasrak base as Syria closes chapter on American deployment

# Last US troops leave Qasrak base as Syria closes chapter on American deployment

Syrian officials said on the event date that the last remaining US troops had left the Qasrak base in Hasakah province, bringing an end to Washington's military presence in Syria after a decade. The withdrawal marks the final closure of a US-held site in a country where American forces first arrived in 2015 to fight the Islamic State group.

Middle East Eye reported that the departure followed the handover of the last base previously under American control to Syrian forces. The site, known as Qasrak, included an airstrip and had been one of the main remaining hubs for the US-led mission in northeast Syria. A Syrian official told the outlet that the withdrawal had been completed.

The withdrawal also fits into a broader shift in the Syrian conflict after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 and the rise of Ahmed al-Sharaa's government. According to the report, Washington now backs the new authorities and had previously maintained about 1,000 troops in Syria. Over time, the US also pulled forces from al-Tanf and al-Shaddadi, leaving Qasrak as the last major American site.

The mission began as a campaign to defeat Islamic State and evolved into a partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces, a relationship that long irritated Turkey. Charles Lister said on social media that the force taking over the base was Syria's 60th Division, composed mainly of Kurdish fighters affiliated with the SDF, and that the US convoy left through Jordan to avoid possible attacks in Iraq. The report said Damascus framed the handover as part of the state regaining full responsibility for counterterrorism and regional security inside its territory.

That language matters because the withdrawal is not just a military logistics story. It signals the collapse of a long-running US posture that depended on an allied local force to contain Islamic State and on a network of bases spread across northeastern and eastern Syria. The report also said the SDF had agreed to hand over large swathes of territory, including Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, to Damascus after earlier negotiations and a short-lived offensive that was calmed by US envoy Tom Barrack.

For Washington, the decision closes a chapter that began in emergency counter-ISIS operations and ended in a setting shaped by a very different Syrian political order. For Syria's new government, it offers a symbolic victory and a practical one: the return of a base that had represented the last visible remnant of the American deployment.

Even with the troops gone, the consequences of the US mission will linger. The withdrawal leaves questions about how Damascus will manage the northeast, how the SDF will be folded into state structures and whether the security vacuum will remain stable. But on the event date, the headline fact was clear: after 10 years, the final US troops were out.

The withdrawal also leaves Washington with fewer options for shaping events on the ground. For years, the US presence in Syria gave it leverage in anti-IS operations and in talks involving the SDF and regional powers. Once that presence is gone, any future role will depend far more on diplomacy than on a military footprint. For Syria, the handover is a symbol of regained sovereignty; for the region, it is a reminder that old alliances and old battle plans are being rewritten at speed.