PARIS (Reuters) - France will keep troops in northern Syria for now because Islamic State militants have not been wiped out, contrary to the U.S. view, and has started talks with the United States on the conditions and calendar of its withdrawal, officials said.

FILE PHOTO: French Defence Minister Florence Parly visits Euronaval, the world naval defence exhibition in Le Bourget near Paris, France, October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

France is a leading member of the U.S.-led coalition fighting militants in Syria and Iraq and has special forces based in the north of the country, deployed alongside Kurdish and Arab forces, and carries out air strikes against the group.

A French presidency source told reporters members of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S. partner in the area, would be in Paris on Friday to hold talks with officials over the move.

“He (Trump) is cutting corners, risking a serious accident ... the coalition’s spine is the United States,” the source said.

France is especially sensitive to the Islamic State threat after several major deadly attacks on its soil and officials believe the militant group continues to pose a threat. Hundreds of French nationals have joined the group in Syria.

President Emmanuel Macron spoke to President Donald Trump on Tuesday after learning in advance of Trump’s intentions, to try convince him not to pull out, as was the case in April when Macron convinced him to stay engaged in Syria by citing the threat of Iran in the region, the source said.

French diplomats told Reuters on Wednesday that Trump’s decision to withdraw all 2,000 U.S. troops from the region had taken Paris by surprise. U.S. officials justified the decision by saying Islamic State had been defeated.

“Islamic State has not been wiped from the map nor have its roots. The last pockets of this terrorist organization must be defeated militarily once and for all,” Defence Minister Florence Parly said on Twitter..

Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau told C-News television that for now French troops would stay.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said Paris and its coalition allies had started talks with Washington on the timeframe and conditions for the U.S withdrawal.

“The protection of the populations of northeastern Syria and the stability of this zone must be taken into account by the United States to avoid any new humanitarian drama and any return of the terrorists,” it said.

It said Paris would be careful to ensure the security of all the U.S. partners in the area, including the SDF, who fear an assault from Turkey.

“We’re used to it now with the Trump administration. The devil is in the detail,” a French diplomat said. </s> The U.S. is not completely pulling out of Syria just yet.

Some American troops will remain for the time being, the White House announced Thursday. In a one-sentence statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: "A small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time."

It's unclear how long the troops will remain there.

According to The New York Times, the announcement came after a phone call between President Trump and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the two leaders agreed to create a "safe zone" in Syria.

In December, the White House said it would pull all 2,000 troops from Syria, a reversal of U.S. policy that reportedly was met with disapproval within the Pentagon and prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign in protest. Troops began withdrawing in January, sparking criticism that the U.S. was leaving before it had completely eradicated the Islamic State presence there.

At a security conference in Munich last week, the U.S. encouraged its European allies to remain in Syria even as it was withdrawing. German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized the U.S. plan. "Is it a good thing to immediately remove American troops from Syria, or will it not strengthen Russia and Iran's hand?" she said.

Some have worried that Russia and Iran would fill the vacuum created by a U.S. pullout.

A senior administration official told The Times that the decision to leave some troops in Syria was intended to encourage France and Britain to also keep troops there. European countries had "unanimously" told the U.S. they wouldn't stay if American forces left, The Washington Post reported, quoting a senior administration official.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, applauded the decision. "This will ensure ISIS does not return and Iran does not fill the vacuum that would have been left if we completely withdrew," he said in a statement.

Graham, who had been critical of Trump's December decision to pull all troops, said keeping forces there ensures that the U.S. won't repeat the mistakes it made in Iraq. "This also ensures Turkey and SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] elements that helped us defeat ISIS will not go into conflict," he said. </s> WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States will likely end its air campaign against Islamic State in Syria when it pulls out troops, U.S. officials said on Thursday, as President Donald Trump defended the planned withdrawal against criticism from allies abroad and at home.

NATO allies France and Germany said Washington’s change of course on Syria risks damaging the fight against Islamic State, the militant group that had seized swathes of Iraq and Syria but has now been squeezed to a sliver of Syrian territory.

Several of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress, joined by opposition Democrats, urged the president to reverse course, saying the withdrawal would strengthen the hand of Russia and Iran in Syria and enable a resurgence of Islamic State.

Trump, however, gave no sign of changing his mind and lashed out at Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican who is sometimes an ally of the president but who has said a withdrawal would have “devastating consequences” for the United States.

“So hard to believe that Lindsey Graham would be against saving soldier lives & billions of $$$,” Trump tweeted. “Why are we fighting for our enemy, Syria, by staying & killing ISIS for them, Russia, Iran & other locals? Time to focus on our Country & bring our youth back home where they belong!”

Trump’s troop announcement on Wednesday upended a pillar of American policy in the Middle East and caused consternation in domestic and foreign critics who argued it would make it harder to find a diplomatic solution to Syria’s seven-year civil war.

France, a leading member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, said it would keep its troops in northern Syria for now and contested Trump’s assertion that the group has been defeated in the country.

“Islamic State has not been wiped from the map nor have its roots. The last pockets of this terrorist organization must be defeated militarily once and for all,” French Defence Minister Florence Parly said on Twitter.

France has about 1,100 troops in Iraq and Syria providing logistics, training and heavy artillery support as well as fighter jets. In Syria it has dozens of special forces, military advisers and some foreign office personnel.

Trump, however, tweeted that he was fulfilling a promise to leave Syria made during his presidential campaign and arguing that the United States was doing the work of other countries and it was “time for others to finally fight.”

Four U.S. officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the troop withdrawal is expected to mean an end to the U.S. air campaign against Islamic State in Syria. The U.S.-led air war has been vital to crushing the militants there and in neighboring Iraq, with more than 100,000 bombs and missiles fired at targets in the two countries since 2015.

Still, one U.S. official said a final decision on the air campaign had not been made and did not rule out some kind of support for partners and allies.

The United States told the U.N. Security Council it was committed to the “permanent destruction” of Islamic State in Syria and would keep pushing for the withdrawal of Iranian-backed forces in the country.

The roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, many of them special forces, were ostensibly helping to combat Islamic State but were also seen as a possible bulwark against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has retaken much of the country from his foes in the civil war, with military help from Iran and Russia.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been fighting Islamic State with U.S. support for three years, said the withdrawal of troops would let the militants regroup at a critical stage and leave Syrians stuck between “the claws of hostile parties” fighting for territory in the civil war.

The SDF are in the final stages of a campaign to recapture areas seized by the militants.

But they face the threat of a military incursion by Turkey, which considers the Kurdish YPG fighters who spearhead the force to be a terrorist group, and Syrian forces committed to restoring Assad’s control over the whole country.

The SDF said the battle against Islamic State had reached a decisive phase that required more support, not a precipitate U.S. withdrawal.

Islamic State declared a caliphate in 2014 after seizing parts of Syria and Iraq. The hardline group established its de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa, using it as a base to plot attacks in Europe.

According to U.S. estimates, the group oversaw about 100,000 square kms (39,000 square miles) of territory, with about 8 million people under its control and estimated revenues of nearly $1 billion a year.

A senior U.S. official last week said the group was down to its last 1 percent of the territory it once held. It has no remaining territory in Iraq, although militants have resumed insurgent attacks since the group’s defeat there last year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he largely agreed with Trump that the group had been defeated in Syria but added there was a risk it could recover.

He also questioned what Trump’s announcement meant in practical terms, saying there was no sign yet of a withdrawal of U.S. forces, whose presence in Syria Moscow calls illegitimate.

Israel will escalate its fight against Iranian-aligned forces in Syria after the withdrawal of U.S. troops, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

While Turkey has not commented directly on Trump’s decision, an end to the U.S.-Kurdish partnership will please Ankara.

Kurdish militants east of the Euphrates in Syria “will be buried in their ditches when the time comes,” state-owned Anadolu news agency reported Defence Minister Hulusi Akar as saying.

Turkey has intervened to sweep YPG and Islamic State fighters from parts of northern Syria that lie west of the Euphrates over the past two years. It has not gone east of the river, partly to avoid direct confrontation with U.S. forces. </s> The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said on Thursday a White House decision to withdraw from Syria will allow an Islamic State revival and threaten the battle in eastern Syria.

The Kurdish-led force said pulling US troops and officials out of its region would have “dangerous implications” on international stability.

This would also “create a political and military vaccum in the area, leaving its people between the claws of hostile parties,” the statement said.

France will keep its troops in northern Syria for now because Islamic State militants have not been wiped out and continue to pose a threat to French interests, officials said.

France is a leading member of the US-led coalition fighting militants in Syria and Iraq and has around 1,000 troops including special forces based in the north of the country, deployed alongside local Kurdish and Arab forces.

French diplomats told Reuters on Wednesday US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw all its 2,000 troops from the region had taken Paris by surprise. US officials justified the decision by saying Islamic State had been entirely defeated.

“It shows that we can have different priorities and that we must count on ourselves first,” Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau told C-News television. “For now, of course we are staying in Syria because the fight against Islamic State is essential.”

France is especially sensitive to the Islamic State threat after several major attacks on its soil in recent years. Hundreds of French nationals have joined the group in Syria.

Defence Minister Florence Parly acknowledged on Twitter that the militant group had been weakened and lost some 90 percent of its territory, but said the battle was not over.

“Islamic State has not been wiped from the map nor have its roots. The last pockets of this terrorist organisation must be defeated militarily once and for all,” she said.

President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Trump on Wednesday, diplomats said. In April, when Trump previously announced a US withdrawal, Macron persuaded the US leader that Washington should stay engaged by citing the threat of Iran in the region.

French officials are scrambling to find out from US agencies exactly what Trump’s announcement means. The United States has been unclear on when the troops will be withdrawn.

“We’re used to it now with the Trump administration. The devil is in the detail,” said one French diplomat.

France has about 1,100 troops operating in Iraq and Syria providing logistics, training and heavy artillery support as well as fighter jets to strike targets.

Its presence in Syria also includes dozens of special forces, military advisers and some foreign office personnel. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has no timeline to withdraw troops from Syria but does not plan to stay indefinitely, a senior State Department official said on Friday, a strong signal that forces could stay until the fight against Islamic State militants ends.

U.S.-backed forces are still retaking territory from Islamic State in Syria, Pentagon officials said on Friday, two weeks after Washington said it would withdraw its roughly 2,000 troops there. At the time, President Donald Trump said the troops had succeeded in their mission and were no longer needed there.

The administration’s abrupt announcement last month, which took officials in Washington and allies by surprise, contributed to Jim Mattis’ decision to resign as U.S. defense secretary and prompted concern that Islamic State could stage a comeback.

The State Department official, briefing reporters before a visit to the Middle East next week by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, appeared to be seeking to allay that concern.

“We have no timeline for our military forces to withdraw from Syria,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.

“It will be done in such a way that we and our allies and partners maintain pressure on ISIS throughout and we do not open up any vacuums for terrorists.”

The United States did not intend to have an indefinite military presence in Syria, the official added.

U.S. officials have told Reuters a withdrawal could take several months, potentially giving time for U.S.-backed forces to deal parting blows to the militant group that once held broad swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.

But a senior administration official traveling with White House national security adviser John Bolton on a trip to the Middle East said Trump had received assurances from his military commanders that their mission “can be done in weeks.”

Trump said on Wednesday the United States would get out of Syria slowly “over a period of time” and would protect U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in the country as Washington draws down troops.

“Bolton will travel to Israel and Turkey to discuss the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, and how the U.S. will work with allies and partners to prevent the resurgence of ISIS, stand fast with those who fought with us against ISIS, and counter Iranian malign behavior in the region,” Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said.

Marquis said Bolton would be joined in Turkey by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford and U.S. special Syria envoy James Jeffrey.

Separately, the State Department said Jeffrey would be taking on the additional role of the special envoy for the coalition to defeat Islamic State.

Jeffrey will be involved in negotiations on a political process and also assumes the diplomatic role of coordinating with allies and partners on the fight against Islamic State.

Brett McGurk, the previous special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State, quit last month over Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.

‘FINAL BLOWS’

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which include Kurdish fighters, captured the Syrian town of Kashmah on Jan. 2 after retaking the town of Hajin on Dec. 25, Pentagon spokesman Navy Commander Sean Robertson told Reuters.

The capture came the same day that Trump stated during a cabinet meeting his strong desire to gradually withdraw from Syria, calling it a place of “sand and death.”

Trump also said it was up to other countries to fight Islamic State, including Russia and Iran, adding that Islamic State was down to its last remaining bits of territory in Syria.

“We’re hitting the hell out of them, the ISIS people,” Trump said, using an acronym to refer to Islamic State, adding, “We’re down to final blows.”

Separately on Friday, the U.S.-led coalition said it carried out 469 strikes in Syria between Dec. 16 and Dec. 29 that destroyed nearly 300 fighting positions, more than 150 staging areas, and a number of supply routes, oil lubricant storage facilities and equipment.

Islamic State retains control of just a “sprinkle of villages” near the Euphrates river, said Aaron Stein, the Middle East program director at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

“(ISIS) will simply revert to a diffused rural insurgency where it could use just the tyranny of space - the desert is very big - to sort of hide out and be able to launch raiding attacks,” he added.

The Pentagon spokesman said coalition forces, which Washington coordinates, were continuing to assist the SDF with close air support and artillery strikes in the Middle Euphrates River Valley.

“We will continue to work with the coalition and regional partners toward an enduring defeat of ISIS,” Robertson said.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. troops patrol near Turkish border in Hasakah, Syria, November 4, 2018. REUTERS/Rodi Said/File Photo

He called the capture of Hajin significant.

“This was a milestone, since it was among the largest of the last remaining ISIS strongholds in the Middle Euphrates River Valley.”Islamic State declared its “caliphate” in 2014 after seizing large swathes of Syria and Iraq. The hardline Islamist group established its de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa, using it as a base to plot attacks in Europe.

Much of the U.S. campaign in Syria has been waged by warplanes flying out of Qatar and other locations in the Middle East. </s> THE United States said it has begun withdrawing its forces from Syria as it winds up its campaign to retake territory once held by Islamic State.

“We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

US President Donald Trump earlier tweeted: “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there.”

It was not immediately clear from Sanders’ statement whether all of the roughly 2,000 US troops in the country would leave and if so, by when.

Sanders suggested that the US would remain engaged to some degree.

“The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support,” she said.

A decision to pull out completely, if confirmed, would upend assumptions about a longer-term US military presence in Syria, which senior officials have advocated to help ensure Islamic State cannot re-emerge.

Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham, often a Trump ally, said a withdrawal would have “devastating consequences” for the US in the region and throughout the world.

“An American withdrawal at this time would be a big win for ISIS, Iran, (President) Bashar al Assad of Syria, and Russia,” Graham said.

Trump has previously lambasted his predecessor, Barack Obama, for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq that preceded an unraveling of the Iraqi armed forces. Iraqi forces collapsed in the face of Islamic State’s advance into the country in 2014.

A pullout would allow other countries to increase their influence in Syria, experts said.

“If we withdraw then who fills the vacuum, who is able to stabilize and that is the million dollar question,” said Andrew Tabler, a Syria specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and State Department officials have long fretted about leaving Syria before a peace agreement can be reached to end the country’s civil war.

In April, Mattis said: “We do not want to simply pull out before the diplomats have won the peace. You win the fight, and then you win the peace.”

A complete withdrawal of US troops from Syria would still leave a sizeable US military presence in the region, including about 5,200 troops across the border in Iraq.

Much of the US campaign in Syria has been waged by warplanes flying out of Qatar and other locations in the Middle East.

Brett McGurk, the US special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State, said last week that the group was down to its last 1 percent of the territory it once held in its self-styled “caliphate.” The group has no remaining territory in Iraq.

But US officials have warned that taking back the group’s territory would not be the same as defeating it. ISIS is expected to now wage a guerrilla campaign.

“Even as the end of the physical caliphate is clearly now coming into sight, the end of ISIS will be a much more long-term initiative,” McGurk said. </s> U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (2ndL) and France's Foreign Minister Jean Marc Ayrault (2ndR) attend a meeting on Syria, in Paris, France, December 10, 2016. REUTERS/Thibault Camus/Pool

PARIS (Reuters) - Backers of the Syrian opposition appeared resigned to the fall of eastern Aleppo on Saturday, with the United States urging Russia to show "grace" when officials meet in Geneva to try to reach a deal for civilians and fighters to leave the city.

Syrian government and allied forces have in the last two weeks driven rebels from most of their territory in what was once Syria's most populous city.

The rebels have controlled the eastern section since 2012, and President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Thursday that retaking Aleppo would change the course of the civil war across the whole country.

Critics of the operation have warned that thousands of civilians risk being caught in the crossfire and have repeatedly called on Syrian government forces backed by Russian air power to accept a ceasefire to allow civilians and rebel fighters to leave to safer areas.

Speaking in Paris after a meeting of countries that oppose Assad, including France, Britain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry showed little optimism for U.S. and Russian talks in Geneva later on Saturday.

"Our teams are meeting in Geneva today in order to flesh out details of a possible way of trying to save lives. Russia and Assad have a moment where they are in a dominant position to show a little grace," Kerry told reporters.

"I believe there could be a way forward but it depends on big, magnanimous choices from Russia ... and insistence of Russia on the Assad regime," he said.

Moscow and Washington have discussed a ceasefire to let civilians escape eastern Aleppo and aid enter. Russia also wants the United States to urge rebel fighters to abandon their territory and accept transport out.

"Fighters ... don't trust that if they agreed to leave to try to save Aleppo that it will save Aleppo and they will be unharmed and free to move where they are not immediately attacked," Kerry said, adding that Geneva talks had to set some guarantees for rebels.

The meeting in Paris, also attended by Riad Hijab, the main opposition coordinator, underscored the powerlessness of Syrian opposition supporters, as well as some divisions between them.

Beyond the issue of humanitarian access, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Moscow and Damascus needed to realize that the fall of Aleppo would not end the war and that negotiations based on U.N. Security Council resolutions agreed in Dec. 2015 should be revived to find a political solution.

More than five years of war in Syria have killed more than 300,000 people and made more than half of Syrians homeless.

"What peace do they want? The peace of cemeteries?," Ayrault said. "Negotiations must start again... The opposition is ready to negotiate without preconditions." </s> The US military will keep around 200 troops in Syria after US President Donald Trump’s pullout from the war-torn country, the White House said Thursday.

“A small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time,” White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said.

The announcement comes amid fierce criticism of Trump’s decision to withdraw America’s 2,000 or so troops from Syria by April 30, with members of his own Republican Party blasting the move.

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In December, Trump declared victory over the Islamic State group in Syria, even though thousands of jihadists remain and fighting continues around their last holdout.

Critics have decried a number of possible outcomes from a precipitous withdrawal, including a Turkish attack on US-backed Kurdish forces and a resurgence of IS.

Israel has repeatedly warned in recent years that Iran is seeking to establish a military presence in Syria, where it is fighting alongside its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah and Russia to restore the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Israeli officials have also warned that America’s absence would open the door for Tehran to create a so-called “land bridge” from Iran, through Iraq and Syria, into Lebanon and to the Mediterranean Sea.

Over the last several years, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against targets linked to Iran.

Sanders did not provide additional details, but the troops’ “peacekeeping” designation could pave the way for European allies to commit forces for such a mission.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan visited Europe last week where he attempted to convince allies to maintain a troop presence in Syria after the US pulls out.

But he struggled to persuade other countries why they should risk their forces with America gone.

Trump earlier Thursday spoke with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and the two men discussed Syria, according to a White House summary.

“The two presidents agreed to continue coordinating on the creation of a potential safe zone” in Syria, the readout said.

At the height of its rule, IS imposed its brutal ideology on a territory roughly the size of the United Kingdom, attracting thousands of supporters from abroad.

But the jihadists have since lost almost all their territory save for a tiny sliver of around half a square kilometer (a fifth of a square mile) in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are working towards evacuating civilians remaining in the holdout, so they can polish off the dying IS “caliphate” whether through an assault or a surrender deal.

Syria’s Kurds have long demanded the repatriation of foreigners accused of belonging to IS in their custody, but their home countries have been reluctant. </s> President Donald Trump at a cabinet meeting earlier in the day said he will not reverse course on his decision to pull US troops out of Syria. The comment came just hours after reports that senior officials confirmed the United States would leave some 400 troops in the country.

"I am confident we can maintain a campaign," Dunford said on Friday.

On Thursday, the White House said a small contingent of forces would be left behind in Syria that will include 200 in a peacekeeping role.

In December, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would pull out its forces, which had been operating in Syria for years as part of the international coalition fighting against the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia).

READ MORE: US Likely to Retain Control of Northeast Syria After Troop Pullout — Official

Notably, the US forces have been operating in Syria without the authorization of the Middle Eastern country’s government or the UN Security Council. Washington has been supporting the Kurdish-led militia controlling the territories to the east of the Euphrates and opposing the Syrian government. Ankara, in its turn, sees the militia linked to the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which the authorities have listed as a terrorist organization.
The United States' allies France and the United Kingdom say they won't keep their troops in Syria after the United States pulls out.