"We are not withdrawing troops at this stage," the official said.
Earlier in the day, a US defence official said that the US had removed some military hardware from Syria.
11 January 2019, 06:21 GMT
On 19 December, the White House announced plans to withdraw roughly 2,000 US troops from Syria within the next several months, a move that Trump claimed can be explained by the fact that American forces had implemented their task of obliterating Daesh* in the Arab country.
The decision was slammed by some US officials and prompted two resignations: US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis, who announced that his views were no longer aligned with Trump's, and Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the US coalition in Syria.
*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia
