Trump orders withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump has directed a deliberate withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria in advance of an expected increase in military action in the region, to keep them out of harm’s way, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reiterated a US threat to damage Turkey’s economy via sanctions if Ankara does anything in Syria the US considers off-limits.
Esper said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” the US has learned in the past 24 hours that Turkey is likely to attack further south and to the west in Syria, and that Kurdish forces are looking to cut a deal with Syria and Russia to counterattack against the Turks in the north.
The defense secretary said he spoke with Trump, and that after discussions with the national security team, the president directed the start of the withdrawal of forces from northern Syria but not the entire country. Esper didn’t put a time frame on the action.
“We have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing armies, and it’s a very untenable situation,” Esper said.
“We want to make sure we don’t want to put our soldiers in a situation where they could be killed or injured.”

‘Beheading Kurds’
In that vein, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican critic of Trump’s decision to withdraw US forces, tweeted on Sunday that Turkish forces “are filming themselves beheading Kurds” and that “US troops are at serious risk of being cut off & of coming under attack by enemy fighters.”
Trump and his top aides are defending the president’s decision to pull back some US forces in northern Syria, a move that cleared the way for Turkey to send its forces into the country and attack American-allied Kurdish militias.
Critics say Trump gave Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a green light to attack, risking a resurgence of the so-called IS and even a genocide of the Kurds. Former US Defense Secretary James Mattis said as much in an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Trump pushed back on Sunday against criticism of his directive about Syria, saying on Twitter that it’s “very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting.”
Esper told CBS, in response to reports of IS fighters running free and potential war crimes in the area, that the US warned Turkey not to advance and “it’s a terrible situation, we condemn it.’’
There are roughly 1,000 US troops in Syria. Esper on CBS made it clear that if US forces are attacked they will be able to respond because “we have right of self-defense.”
‘Moment’s Notice’
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Mnuchin said the US has full authority to impose sanctions quickly on Turkey that could include shutting down all US dollar transactions with the entire government of the country, which is something the administration may do.
“We are ready to go on a moment’s notice to put on sanctions,” Mnuchin said.
“These sanctions could be starting small, they could be maximum pressure which would destroy the Turkish economy.’’
His comment echoed that of Trump, who had tweeted earlier that “if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey.”
Asked what the administration is waiting for, Mnuchin said it is a “complicated, developing situation” but that the US is closely monitoring it and has told Turkey it is willing to move quickly on sanctions.