Trump softens Syria pull-out schedule but claims ‘hero’ status
- ‘If anybody but Donald Trump did what I did in Syria … they would be a national hero,’ tweeted the US president
- But Trump has apparently watered down plans to leave a war-torn Middle Eastern country
US President Donald Trump appeared on Monday to water down plans for a withdrawal of American troops from Syria, even as he defiantly claimed his achievements in the conflict should make him a “national hero”.
The tweeted comment came the day after a senior Republican senator said that Trump had promised to stay in Syria to finish the job of destroying Islamic State – days after he said troops were coming home.
“If anybody but Donald Trump did what I did in Syria, which was an ISIS loaded mess when I became President, they would be a national hero,” Trump tweeted, using another acronym for IS.
“ISIS is mostly gone, we’re slowly sending our troops back home to be with their families, while at the same time fighting ISIS remnants.”
About 2,000 US troops as well as other foreign forces are in Syria to help local anti-government rebels battling IS.
The US-led coalition launched its first raids against IS in September 2014, more than two years before Trump won the US presidential election. US-backed forces seized the extremists’ de facto capital of Raqa on October 17, 2017.