US troops have begun withdrawing from Syria, compounding weeks of confusion over Donald Trump’s policy in the Middle East and raising fears over the fate of America’s Kurdish allies.

The US-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) confirmed on Friday that the military had started the “deliberate withdrawal” of the roughly 2,000 American troops in Syria.

The military would not give any detail of the overall timetable for the American withdrawal nor which positions US troops had begun pulling back from.

A convoy of ten US military vehicles was seen leaving a base in Hasakah province in northeast Syria and heading towards the Iraqi border, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Mr Trump abruptly announced the US withdrawal from Syria on December 19, blindsiding US allies and triggering a confrontation within the US administration that led to the resignation of his defence secretary.

Over recent weeks, senior US officials have offered confusing and contradictory accounts of the terms and speed with which the US is leaving.

Mr Trump initially signalled a rapid withdrawal from Syria and US officials said they expected troops to be out with 30 days.