Esper says Trump orders US troops to leave northern Syria

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (MENA) - US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said President Donald Trump has ordered all U.S. troops in northern Syria to move south, but not leave the country, the New York Times reported.

Esper said that the conflict between Turkish forces and U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters had become “untenable” for the U.S. military.

And that led Trump to direct what Esper calls a “deliberate” withdrawal of American troops from the north.
Esper says the forces weren’t ordered to leave Syria entirely.

Esper isn’t saying how many U.S. troops will leave the north, but he says they represent most of the 1,000 troops in Syria.