The US has started withdrawing troops from Syria, the Department of Defense said Friday. The US-led coalition against the Islamic State has "begun the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria," a spokesman said. President Donald Trump first said on December 19 that he wanted to quickly pull troops out of Syria. His abrupt announcement preceded a flurry of mixed messages over the extent of a US withdrawal, which troops would leave, and when. The US on Friday said it had started withdrawing troops from Syria, despite the Trump administration saying as recently as this week that it planned to handle the withdrawal much differently. The US-led, 79-nation coalition against the Islamic State terrorist group has begun its "deliberate withdrawal from Syria," Col. Sean Ryan, the spokesman for the alliance, said in a statement cited by Reuters and The New York Times. "Out of concern for operational security, we will not discuss specific timelines, locations, or troop movements," he added, according to Reuters. INSIDER has contacted the Department of Defense for comment. The news comes after weeks of chaotic mixed messages, which began with President Donald Trump's December 19 announcement that the US would move quickly to pull its 2,000 troops in Syria out of the country. In making the announcement, Trump claimed victory against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which holds only a fraction of the territory it once did but has not been eliminated. Read more: Trump just radically upended US Syria policy despite repeated warnings that doing so could be disastrous President Donald Trump, seen during a trip to Iraq last month, announced his plan to pull the 2,000 troops out of Syria on December 19. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo The president originally said he wanted the troops out in 30 days but later rowed back his comments. His administration later lengthened the timeline for withdrawal. The US was hoping that Turkey would help fight the remnants of ISIS in Syria. That plan hit a snag earlier this week when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly insulted the US national security adviser, John Bolton, and said he would not play ball with the US's plan. The US national security adviser, John Bolton, left, clashed this week with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the US's withdrawal conditions. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters; Umit Bektas/Reuters Washington wanted assurances that Turkey would not attack Kurdish militants in Syria — whom the US had been fighting with but whom Turkey considers terrorists — after the US departure. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that the US would carry out with its withdrawal plans despite Erdogan and Bolton's disagreement, Reuters reported. Unnamed defense officials also told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday: "Nothing has changed. We don't take orders from Bolton." Trump's announcement of a hasty, apparently unconditional withdrawal from Syria was met with opposition even from high-level US officials. Both Jim Mattis, the US defense secretary, and Brett McGurk, the top US official leading the coalition against ISIS, resigned over it.<doc-sep>The U.S. military began the process of withdrawing its troops from Syria following a drawdown ordered by President Donald Trump, a military official said Friday. Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for the U.S.-coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, declined to discuss specific operational details of the pullout such as timings and troop movements, but said in an email the withdrawal was underway. About 2,000 U.S. troops are in Syria. The military has moved some cargo from Syria already, according to a U.S. Defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Trump's order is for a complete withdrawal of troops and their equipment. The troops in Syria have weapons, communication equipment and vehicles that will need to be moved. Planning is underway to identify facilities that can handle the equipment, the official said. No troops have left yet. It could take months to complete the withdrawal. The development comes as White House national security adviser John Bolton appeared to contradict Trump's order when he said the withdrawal would not be immediate, it would not happen before ISIS is fully defeated and it would be contingent on a pledge by Turkey not to attack the U.S.'s Kurdish military allies in Syria. None of Bolton's conditions have been met. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to meet with Bolton during his visit to Turkey this week and described his conditions for the U.S. troop drawdown as a "grave mistake." Turkey considers some members of a Syrian-Kurdish Arab coalition fighting ISIS alongside U.S. troops to be terrorists and has applauded Trump's decision. Turkey has amassed thousands of troops along its border with Syria and has long threatened to unilaterally attack Kurdish militias who it claims has ties to separatist groups who have carried out assassinations and bombings against the Turkish government for decades. The U.S. withdrawal from the area could embolden Ankara. "I have some concerns, my greatest concern…probably is the Kurds and… just how defenseless we are going to leave them," newly elected Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D, told Stars and Stripes, an American military newspaper. On Monday, Bolton said Trump would "not allow Turkey to kill the Kurds." Trump announced the withdrawal about three weeks ago on Dec. 19. A day later, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis released a resignation letter in which he indicated that he no longer agreed with the president's thinking on military operations. According to a recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, ISIS is far from obliterated. The Washington-based think tank estimates 20,000 to 30,000 Islamic State militants may still be in Syria and Iraq. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the Syria conflict via a network of activists on the ground, said the U.S. withdrawal began Thursday night. It said a convoy of about 10 armored vehicles, in addition to some trucks, pulled out from a military base in Syria’s northeastern town of Rmelan into Iraq. The U.S.-led coalition has been fighting ISIS in the Middle East since 2014 and Mattis said before leaving his job that declaring victory and leaving Syria would be a mistake. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been defending Trump's order this week while on a tour of the Middle East where he has been rebuking former President Barack Obama's policies for the region. In a speech in Cairo, he said Trump "made the right decision to bring our troops home from Syria" and the U.S. is "committed to the complete dismantling of the ISIS threat and the ongoing fight against radical Islamism." But Pompeo also caused confusion about Washington's Syria policy. He said in his speech in Cairo that Obama was wrong to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. "When America retreats, chaos follows. When we neglect our friends, resentment builds. And when we partner with enemies, they advance," Pompeo said. Less than 24 hours later, U.S. troops started pulling out of Syria. More:Trump admin's backtracking on Syria leaves foreign policy in a better place More:'The age of self-inflicted American shame is over,' Pompeo declares<doc-sep>
The U.S.-led military coalition in Syria started the process of withdrawing troops from the embattled region, a U.S. defense official confirmed to Fox News on Friday. The U.S. started “the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria,” said Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for the coalition fighting the Islamic State. ENDLESS WARS WILL EVENTUALLY COME TO A 'GLORIOUS' END, TWEETS TRUMP “Out of concern for operational security, we will not discuss specific timelines, locations or troops movements,” Ryan said in a statement to the Associated Press. The withdrawal appeared to have begun Thursday night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict in Syria through activists on the ground. A convoy of about 10 armored vehicles and some trucks pulled out of Rmeilan, Syria, heading for and into Iraq. The first withdrawals come amid confusion over plans to implement President Donald Trump’s pullout order and threats from Turkey to attack the Kurds, who are U.S. allies in the fighting against ISIS. Trump’s decision to remove troops from Syria sent shockwaves through the embattled region and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis. U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday American troops will not leave northeastern Syria until ISIS is defeated and U.S.-backed Kurds were protected. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also sought to reassure the Kurds they will be safe after the U.S. completely pulls out. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP There are 2,000 American troops in Syria. Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.