US President Donald Trump declared on Tuesday that it was time for American troops to return home from Syria.
He said that he was “thinking very seriously” over the issue, but no decision has yet been taken over it.
"I want to bring our troops back home. I want to start rebuilding our nation," Trump stressed, having indicated that US troops will leave once the ISIS terrorist group is routed.
"Our primary mission in terms of that was getting rid of ISIS. We've almost completed that task," Trump said. "We'll be making a decision very quickly."
The US president added that he would consult with allies over the potential pullout.
Later on Tuesday, a top US State Department official stressed that the US fight against ISIS in Syria was not yet over.
"We are going to complete that mission," Brett McGurk, the special US envoy for the global coalition against ISIS, told a forum in Washington.
"We are in Syria to fight ISIS. That is our mission and our mission isn't over and we are going to complete that mission.”
