U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that the administration was preparing a “deliberate withdrawal” of the remaining 1,000 troops stationed in northern Syria “as safely and quickly as possible.” The Daily Beast first reported Friday that claims made by President Donald Trump that troops had been withdrawn were untrue. The president said on Wednesday, “We are out of there. We’ve been out of there for a while. No soldiers whatsoever.” He made the same claims on Twitter Thursday, writing, “We have no soldiers in Syria.” But two U.S. officials contradicted the president, confirming to The Daily Beast that the U.S. military had only pulled back from northern Syria, not pulled out, abandoning two small observation posts in the area Turkey then invaded. Esper told CBS that if U.S. troops are fired on, they will engage, saying they “have the right to self defense and we will execute it if necessary.”
