"It is our mission. The tools we will use are broad. The fact that a couple thousand uniformed personnel in Syria will be withdrawing is a tactical change. It doesn’t materially alter our capacity to continue to perform the military actions that we need to perform," Pompeo told reporters in Abu Dhabi.
In December, US President Donald Trump declared victory over the Daesh and said he would withdraw some 2,000 US troops currently deployed in the Middle Eastern country. Washington, however, said that it would not disclose a timeline for withdrawing its troops, and pledged that the US-led international coalition's fight against terrorism would continue.
Fox News reported on Friday citing a US defense official that the US-led coalition in Syria had started the process of withdrawing troops from the region.
*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia
