President Donald Trump has apparently signaled the withdrawal of the United States (US) from war-torn Syria "very soon".
" By the way, we're knocking the hell out of ISIS. We'll be coming out of Syria like very soon. Let the other people take care of it now," CNN reported Trump, as telling a crowd in Ohio during a speech on infrastructure spending.
"We are going to have 100% of the caliphate, as they call it, sometimes referred to as land ... But we are going to be coming out of there real soon. We are going to get back to our country, where we belong, where we want to be," the US President added.
A US defense official having the know-how of the Islamic State (IS) campaign directly said it is unclear what the President meant by the comments.
According to the official, Trump could decide at any point of time to pull out; however military commanders were not in the favour of that course of action at this time.
The official also made a note of figuring out what to do with some 400 foreign IS fighters, who are presently being held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces as one instance of the hurdles to a US withdrawal.
Furthermore, the State Department and US Agency for International Development have dozens of officials working on the ground to stabilise cities and towns after ISIS's defeat.
They work with international partners on demining, rubble removal, and restoring services like water, electricity, and schools and hospitals, according to the reports.
About 2,000 US troops deployed to Syria have been working alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces, reclaiming territory from IS to include the city of Raqqa.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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