Baladi News
The spokesman of the US-led coalition Colonel Sean Ryan, said of Friday that the withdrawal process has begun, without clarifying whether he refers to the US troops to all the troops of the Coalition.
"CJTF-OIR has begun the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria," Colonel Ryan told AFP in a statement, "Out of concern for operational security, we will not discuss specific timelines, locations or troops movements," he said.
The statement comes a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Cairo defended the withdrawal, insisting it was a retreat.
Trump's abrupt decision in December to pull 2000 US troops out from Syria, declaring in a tweet the defeat of IS, sent shockwaves across the region and prompted a flurry of criticism from some of his generals and national security advisers, as well as his allies.
The US-led coalition, which also includes countries such as France and Britain, was formed in mid-2014 to counter the expansion of the Islamic State group after it proclaimed its self-styled "caliphate".