US troops and military equipment have begun withdrawing from a US military base in al-Shaddadi in Syria's Al-Hasakah province, located near the al-Jabsa oil field, on April 23, government-controlled Al Watan newspaper reported.

According to the paper, military transport convoys are moving toward the Syrian-Iraqi border. No information has been provided about the number of US troops leaving Syria.

US forces have been in Syria since 2014 as part of the campaign against ISIS (the Islamic State). It maintains a military presence in the country's oil-rich northeast, where approximately 900 troops remain deployed, originally sent to support the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against terrorism. The US military presence has long been entwined with control of the country’s oil fields. Oil was a major component of Syria's economy before the country’s civil war, contributing about 25% of government revenues and accounting for roughly 35% of the country's export earnings but had declined to approximately, but output plummeted to 24,000 bpd by 2018, mostly from fields under US-backed SDF control.

On April 16, special units stationed at a military base near the Conoco gas field in Deir ez-Zor province were relocated to neighbouring Iraq.

The New York Times reported that three of the eight US operational bases in northeastern Syria will soon be closed, with military personnel reduced from 2,200 to 1,400.

US troops have supported the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) since 2015, which control 25% of the country's territory, including oil and gas fields in Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Hasaka provinces.

On March 10, Syria's transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaam, and SDF military leader Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement to incorporate Kurdish fighters into the government armed forces.

The parties agreed that all civilian and military facilities in Kurdish-controlled regions would transfer to the authority of the new administration in Damascus.

In November 2019, the head of US Central Command said there was no "end date" on the US's intervention in Syria which specifically protected the country's eastern oil fields. At their peak in 2021, there were around 900 US soldiers operating in Syria, according to the US Department of Defence.