Els: MBN360 Asia
According to the Syrian defence ministry, Syrian forces have taken control of the strategic al-Tanf military base near the border with Iraq and Jordan.
This comes amid the withdrawal of a longstanding United States troop presence at the base.
The ministry said in a statement that Syrian Arab Army units had taken control of al-Tanf, securing the base and its surroundings, “through coordination between the Syrian and American sides.”
Army units had “begun deploying along the Syrian-Iraqi-Jordanian” border nearby, the ministry said, while border guards would be deployed in the coming days.
The base was established during Syria’s civil war in 2014 as a key hub for operations by the global coalition against ISIL (ISIS), which at the time controlled large areas of Syria and Iraq until the group was vanquished in 2017.
The US withdrawal from the base comes months after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former leader of the armed group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, who the US once deemed a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” joined the anti-ISIL coalition in November.
The pullout also follows a US-brokered deal to integrate the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, a key US partner in the fight against ISIL, into Syrian government institutions, an agreement the US hailed as a major step towards national unity and reconciliation in Syria.
The US Central Command said in a statement that troops have completed “the orderly departure” from al-Tanf base on Wednesday.
It said that the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, established by the US Central Command in 2014, has advised, assisted, and enabled partner forces in the fight against IS.
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It added that in April last year, the Defense Department announced the U.S. military would begin consolidating its locations in Syria after the territorial defeat of IS almost seven years ago.
Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander asserted that US forces remain poised to respond to any IS threats that arise in the region “as we support partner-led efforts to prevent the terrorist network’s resurgence.”
He added that maintaining pressure on ISIS is essential to protecting the US homeland and strengthening regional security.
The command said that over the past two months, US forces have struck more than 100 targets with over 350 precision munitions while capturing or killing more than 50 IS members.
The US carried out a round of “large-scale” attacks against ISIL in Syria in January following an ambush that killed two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter in the city of Palmyra in December.
Al-Tanf garrison was repeatedly attacked over the past years with drones by Iran-backed groups but such attacks have dropped sharply following the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in Syria in December 2024 when insurgent groups marched into his seat of power in Damascus.
Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has been expanding his control of the country, and last month government forces captured wide parts of northeast Syria after deadly clashes with the SDF.
A ceasefire was later reached between the two sides.Al-Tanf base played a major role in the fight against the Islamic State group that declared a caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014. IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later.
Over the past weeks, the US military began transferring thousands of IS prisoners from prisons run by the SDF in northeastern Syria to Iraq, where they will be prosecuted.
While the size of the US deployment in Syria has fluctuated over the years, with precise figures often unclear due to the classified nature of many operations, a Pentagon announcement in July 2025 said that there were about 1,500 American soldiers in Syria.
