The United States is considering a complete withdrawal of American troops from Syria after a weekend offensive by Syrian government forces left the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces near collapse.

The turn of events raised new Pentagon doubts about the viability of the mission, U.S. officials said.

A full pullout would end a decade-long U.S. operation in Syria that began in 2014, when former President Barack Obama intervened in the country's civil war.

The deliberations come as Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa moves to wrest control of northeastern Syria from the SDF, the American military's longtime partner in the region.

Sharaa's government has ordered the SDF to disband after what U.S. officials described as a lightning offensive over the weekend.

The U.S. has weighed reductions in Syria before.

In December 2018, President Donald Trump abruptly announced a full pullout of roughly 2,000 U.S. troops, a move that led to the resignation of then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Then-National Security Adviser John Bolton and other top aides managed to soft-pedal the decision, leaving a residual force in the country.

Roughly 1,000 American troops are now in Syria, mostly scattered across facilities in the northeast alongside the SDF.

A handful are stationed at al-Tanf Garrison in Syria's south. The stated mission has been to prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State, with U.S. soldiers conducting patrols and operations with the SDF.

Until last weekend's offensive, the SDF, which helped the U.S. defeat the ISIS caliphate in 2019, guarded roughly 9,000 ISIS prisoners in detention facilities across the northeast.

In the recent fighting, Syrian forces took a military base, oil facilities and a dam on the Euphrates River from the SDF, U.S. officials said, weakening the group's bargaining position.

Under a resulting ceasefire, the SDF handed over control of Raqqa and Deir ez Zor, while Sharaa's government took over key border crossings and oil installations in northeast Syria.

Arab tribal forces that were once loyal to the SDF switched sides to back the government, the report said. The SDF still controls Kobani and Hasakah, where there are large Kurdish populations, and U.S. officials said the militia could dig in rather than disband.

If the SDF fully disbands, U.S. officials said they see no reason for American troops to stay.

They also cited difficulties posed by working with Sharaa's army, which two officials described as riddled with jihadist sympathizers, including soldiers with ties to al-Qaida and ISIS, and others allegedly involved in war crimes against the Kurds and Druze.

Those concerns intensified after an attack near Palmyra in December killed two U.S. soldiers and an American civilian interpreter, the officials said.

Trump, who invited al-Sharaa to the White House in a historic visit last year, defended al-Sharaa's efforts to secure the prisons Tuesday.

"He is working very hard, the president of Syria," Trump said. "I like the Kurds."

"But just so you understand, the Kurds were paid tremendous amounts of money, given oil and other things, so they were doing it for themselves more than they were doing this for us. But we got along with the Kurds, and we are trying to protect the Kurds."

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