They're driving through the mostly Kurdish city of Qamishli and headed to Iraq

It's vegetables that are bouncing off the armor and sticking to the windows

The US troop pullout is controversial many in the Kurdish north feel betrayed

American soldiers were essentially protecting them from attacks by Turkish forces

But president Trump has long pushed for an American pullout

forever

It's sand and it's death

Elsewhere in Syria. The withdrawal is less eventful

military convoys joined routine traffic on the highway

But it's not just the exit that draws attention

It's what the Americans leave behind

Like this outpost near the city of men bish filmed by a Russian journalist

Here's what it looked like when US troops were stationed in the area

Now they're gone and Russian media has arrived

Literally opening the gates

Russia is trying to fill the void left by the US and Syria

moving its forces into Kurdish areas to broaden influence across the country in

Social media posts Russian reporters make a special point to highlight the signs of a hasty American withdrawal

Discarded footballs and empty sleeping quarters

At another base it's a Harry Potter book and hand drawn signs supporting the troops

but at the Lafarge cement factory a former base the u.s. Disposes of what it left behind a

Defense official announces that American planes bombed US munitions stored there to prevent anyone else from using them

How quickly do Russian troops move in

Here our US and Russian troops at the same strategic location. Just two days apart

And it's not just Russians moving in alone. Syrian army soldier scales a hill that's close by and

Waves the flag of President Bashar al Assad's government which originally lost this territory to armed rebels seven years ago

small groups of American troops will remain elsewhere in Syria on different missions

But for now the u.s. Role in working with and defending kurds in the north has come to an abrupt end