The U.S. military has about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria across a number of bases, mostly in the northeast. The troops are working with local forces to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria but was later pushed back.

The departure would return force levels to where they had been for years, after the U.S. and its allies waged a multiyear campaign to defeat ISIS.

The United States has started drawing down hundreds of troops from northeastern Syria, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The military is shuttering three of its eight small operating bases, reducing troop levels to about 1,