The Trump administration is facing a torrent of criticism Monday after it unexpectedly announced a full U.S. troop withdrawal from northern Syria to effectively allow a long-planned military operation by Turkey against Kurdish ground forces, who had battled to uproot ISIS.

"Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria," a White House statement late Sunday said, noting that President Donald Trump had spoken to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan by phone. "The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial 'Caliphate,' will no longer be in the immediate area."

Security experts on the region and former U.S. officials are calling the decision harmful and a gift to America's adversaries, while some members of the Kurdish forces on the ground in Syria are calling it betrayal.

"The WH statement tonight on Syria after Trump spoke with Erdogan demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of anything happening on the ground," Brett McGurk, the former U.S. special envoy to the global anti-IS coalition, said Monday on Twitter.

"Trump tonight after one call with a foreign leader provided a gift to Russia, Iran, and ISIS."

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Syria's bloody 8-year long conflict has seen military intervention by numerous world powers including Russia and Iran, without whose help Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad wouldn't have survived, regional experts say. Washington and Moscow have long condemned each other's involvement in the country, and the U.S. currently imposes sanctions on Russia for its support of Assad.

McGurk resigned from his position in December after Trump's shock announcement that the U.S. would withdraw all its forces from Syria, a move that meant abandoning U.S.-allied Kurdish troops who proved vital in the defeat of the so-called Islamic State's caliphate. Trump later walked back the decision after widespread condemnation from Republicans and Democrats, giving the impression that several thousand U.S. troops would remain in the region to assist its local allies.