The move, in coordination with the US, is the latest implementation of the ceasefire agreement with Kurdish-led forces.
The Syrian army has taken over a military base in the northeast of the country following the withdrawal of United States troops, as part of a ceasefire deal with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Syria’s Ministry of Defence announced on Sunday that “forces of the Syrian Arab Army have taken over the al-Shaddadi military base in the Hasakah countryside following coordination with the American side”.
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The US had been operating in al-Shadaddi since 2016, when the Kurdish-led forces seized it from ISIL (ISIS).
The US military and the SDF partnered in the fight against ISIL, but after the toppling of Syria’s longtime ruler, Bashar al-Assad, in 2024, Washington has backed interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in his bid to impose control over the entire country.
The US helped broker the deal between al-Sharaa’s government and the SDF in January, after a dispute over the integration of the Kurdish-led forces into the Syrian army erupted into armed clashes.
Under the deal, the Syrian army also took control of the US base of al-Tanf, near the border with Iraq and Jordan, on Thursday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the implementation of the ceasefire agreement was “headed in a positive direction”.
“There’s been some days that have been very concerning, but we like the trajectory,” he said. “We have to keep it on that trajectory. We’ve got good agreements in place. The key now is implementation, and we’ll be very involved in that regard.”
He noted that similar agreements needed to be reached with the Druze, Bedouin and Alawite communities in the country.
“We think that outcome, as difficult as it’s been, is far better than the Syria that would have been broken up into eight pieces, with all kinds of fighting going on, all kinds of mass migration, so we feel very positive about that.”
Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett, reporting from Aleppo, said that residents near al-Shaddadi had spoken of hearing “explosions and seeing fires at the base as Americans destroy remaining material, because they’ve been preparing to leave there for a number of weeks”.
The takeover of al-Shaddadi was “part of a broader change in US strategy in the region moving towards partnering directly with the Syrian government,” she said.
The US has been reducing its military footprint in Syria for months, going from 1,500 personnel in July to about 900 currently.
It has been consolidating its ground presence to Tower 22 in Jordan, although it continues to carry out air strikes on ISIL targets in Syria, with US Central Command (CENTCOM) announcing it had conducted 10 air strikes on 30 targets during the February 3-12 period, and killed or captured more than 50 people in two months.
Al Jazeera’s Pett said that over the past year, there have been joint US-Syria operations as well as intelligence sharing between the two countries.
Most notably, “a few months ago, Syria formally joined the international coalition against ISIL”, she said.
Despite the pullout from al-Shaddadi, “the US has signalled it’s not vacating the field entirely”, she said, pointing to the CENTCOM announcement on continued strikes on ISIL sites in Syria.
“What they’re saying is, while we’re physically pulling out of these bases, they will maintain a presence in the skies above Syria,” Pett said.
