Syria said on Thursday that it had taken control of a military base in Hasakeh province in the northeast after forces from the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State group withdrew.

Syrian army forces ‘took over the Qasrak air base... after the withdrawal of international coalition forces’, said a defence ministry statement carried by state news agency SANA.

A defence ministry official said that Syrian forces had entered the base, which is now ‘empty of American forces after they fully withdrew’.

An AFP correspondent near the northeastern city of Qamishli saw a convoy of US military vehicles heading towards the Iraqi border.

Qasrak was considered a key US base in northeast Syria and served in recent months as a logistics hub for convoys and military equipment heading towards Iraq.

In recent months, Syria’s new Islamist government has expanded its control to parts of the country’s northeast that were previously controlled by US-allied Kurdish forces. The government has also formally joined the anti-IS coalition.

Last month, Syria said the army had taken over the Rmeilan base, also in Hasakeh province, after coalition forces withdrew.

In recent months, American forces have also withdrawn from the Al-Tanf base in the southeast and Shadadi in the northeast.

Syria’s Kurds lost swathes of territory to government forces earlier this year following clashes between the sides, who then agreed a deal to gradually integrate Kurdish military and civilian institutions into the state.

In February, days before the Middle East war erupted, three sources said that US forces leading the anti-IS coalition would complete their withdrawal from Syria within a month.

The US intervened in Syria in 2014 to fight IS, which had taken over swathes of Syria and Iraq in a lightning offensive.

Washington had long backed Syrian Kurdish forces in the country’s northeast but this year said the purpose of that alliance was largely over.