Trump said to favor leaving few hundred troops in eastern Syria

President Donald Trump is leaning in favor of a new Pentagon plan to keep a small contingent of American troops in eastern Syria, perhaps numbering about 200, to combat Daesh and block the advance of Syrian government and Russian forces into the region’s coveted oil fields, a senior administration official said on Sunday.

Last December, Trump directed 2,000 American troops to leave Syria immediately, only to relent later and approve a more gradual withdrawal, The New York Times reported.

A senior administration official said on Sunday that Trump has since last week been considering a plan to leave a couple of hundred troops in northeast Syria, near the border with Iraq, for counterterrorism efforts. The official said it is a concept Trump favors.

Three other administration and Defense Department officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential military planning, confirmed over the weekend that the option was being discussed among top American policymakers and commanders.

The senior administration official said it was highly likely that troops would be kept along the Iraqi border area — away from the cease-fire zone that Vice President Mike Pence negotiated with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey last week. The main goal would be to prevent Daesh from re-establishing all or parts of its religious state, or caliphate, in Syria and neighboring Iraq.