Trump: “I want to get out of syria. I want to bring our troops home.”

: U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he wanted to “get out” of Syria and promised decisions soon, clashing with top advisers who spoke almost simultaneously about the hard work needed to defeat Daesh (ISIS). The remarks demonstrated how Trump appears increasingly willing to publicly push back against his top military advisers and those tied to the fight against the militant group, who see a long-term U.S. role in both Iraq and Syria.
“Our primary mission in terms of that was getting rid of ISIS. We’ve almost completed that task and we’ll be making a decision very quickly in coordination with others, as to what we’ll do,” Trump told a news conference, using another name for Daesh.
“I want to get out. I want to bring our troops home.”
The U.S. has a 2,000-strong force in Syria that is battling the group.
U.S. Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East as the head of Central Command, estimated that more than 90 percent of the group’s territory had been taken back from the militants by U.S.-backed forces.
But Votel, speaking at an event in Washington Tuesday, said that although the threat from Daesh had diminished, “it is not gone.”
Brett McGurk, the special U.S. envoy for the global coalition against Daesh, speaking at the same event as Votel, suggested the U.S. fight against Daesh was not near complete.
“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,” McGurk said, using another name for Daesh.
Separately, buses carrying Syrian civilians and Jaish al-Islam rebels began leaving the town of Douma, the last remaining opposition holdout in Eastern Ghouta, on a second day of evacuations.
Jaish al-Islam has not yet confirmed that an agreement with the Syrian government was made for fighters to leave Douma, amid reports that hard-liners within the group were refusing to abandon their positions.
In video footage published by the group online Sunday, leader Essam al-Buidani told men in a mosque: “We will stay in this town and will not leave” but “those who want to leave should leave.”
The Russian military Tuesday said 1,100 rebels and their family members had left Douma in two dozen buses during the previous 24 hours.
The reported deal is the latest in a string of agreements that have seen tens of thousands of people –rebels and civilians – leave the onetime stronghold outside Damascus for the north of the country.

Russia-backed regime forces have retaken control of 95 percent of Eastern Ghouta since Feb. 18, through a combination of a deadly air and ground assault and evacuation deals. The assault has killed more than 1,600 civilians.
Aid workers have criticized the living conditions in the temporary camps in government-controlled territory receiving the displaced.
Rebels have left behind a labyrinth of tunnels under Eastern Ghouta, fitted with hospitals and military headquarters, some of them wide enough to drive a car through.
SANA said the military found two underground field hospitals with medical equipment and medicine.
In other developments, rebel groups in the besieged area in eastern Qalamoun, northeast of Damascus, have been told they must accept state rule or leave, Ahmad Abdo Martyrs rebel group said Tuesday.
The ultimatum to the rebels of eastern Qalamoun was served to civilians from the area during a meeting with a Russian colonel and an officer from the Syrian Air Force Intelligence, rebel spokesman Said Saif told Reuters.
The rebel enclave in eastern Qalamoun includes several towns and a barren expanse of mountainous territory.
“A clear message was sent to the FSA groups in the area: either reconciliation and disarmament – handing weapons to the Syrian government as the Russians describe it – or departing eastern Qalamoun,” Saif said.
Saif said rebels had made a proposal by which they would withdraw from the towns into the mountains and civilians would stay, and Russia’s response was being awaited. He said the aim was to avoid the “forced displacement” that had occurred in other areas recovered by the Syrian government.
The leaders of Russia, Iran and rebel-backer Turkey will meet in Ankara Wednesday for a summit devoted to Syria.