U.S. forces withdraw from 2 bases in Syria’s Hasakah

   DAMASCUS, Jan. 8  -- The U.S. troops withdrew on Wednesday from two military bases in Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah following the overnight retaliatory attacks by Iran on U.S. troops based in Iraq, state news agency SANA reported.
   The U.S. forces withdrew from a base in the Kharab al-Jir area in the northeastern countryside of Hasakah province in northeastern Syria near the Syrian-Iraqi border on Wednesday, six months after they created it.
   Citing eye-witnesses, SANA said 40 truckloads of military gears were seen leaving the base toward the al-Walid crossing between Syria and Iraq.
   SANA also said the U.S. troops abandoned their military base in the city of Shaddadi toward the al-Hol area in the northeastern countryside of Hasakah as a prelude to moving into neighboring Iraq.
   The evacuation came hours after Iran launched missile strikes against two Iraqi military bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian commander, in Iraq last week.
   More than a dozen of Iranian ballistic missiles struck the al-Asad and Erbil military bases hosting U.S. troops early Wednesday morning.
   The number of U.S. casualties in the attacks remained unknown as U.S. officials were assessing the damage.
   Iran's FARS news agency reported that some 80 U.S. troops were killed and nearly 200 others were wounded in the missile attacks, citing an informed intelligence official of the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.  Xinhau