Pentagon: US policy toward fighting Islamic State in Syria unchanged

WASHINGTON – The US military policy towards fighting Islamic State militants in Syria remains the same following discussions with President Donald Trump this week and the military has not been given a timeline for withdrawing troops, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

Trump agreed in a National Security Council meeting this week to keep US troops in Syria a little longer to defeat Islamic State but wants them out relatively soon, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

Trump had signaled his desire to get US forces out of Syria in a speech last week, and officials said he had privately been pressing for an early withdrawal in talks with his national security aides.

"We've always thought that as we reach finality against ISIS in Syria we're going to adjust the level of our presence there, so in that sense nothing actually has changed," Marine Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie told a Pentagon briefing. McKenzie said Trump has not given the US military any timeline.