The U.S.is deploying a small contingent of special operations forces into northeastern Syria to help local opposition groups beat back the Islamic State, despite President Obama’s repeated declarations that he would not put “boots on the ground” in the war-ravaged country.
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The remarks are the first time Trump has reacted to Obama’s decision to deploy fewer than 50 Special Operations forces to Syria, which the White House announced Friday.
The United States will deploy dozens of special operations troops to northern Syria from next month to advise opposition forces in their fight against Islamic State.
After months of denying that US troops would be in any combat role in Iraq, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter late last week acknowledged that the situation USA soldiers found themselves in during the raid in Hawija was combat.
But over the past year, the number of USA troops in Iraq has expanded to about 3,300.
All previous efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Syria’s civil war have collapsed over the insistence of the United States, European powers, Arab states and Turkey that Assad agree to leave power.
Needless to say, most analysts see through the smoke and mirrors being thrown up by the White House.
The policy pivot includes other measures: a new special operations force in Erbil in northern Iraq and “intensified” cooperation with Iraqis in retaking Ramadi to hurt ISIL from the east, and expanded security assistance to Jordan and Lebanon.
The USA sources said deliveries of TOW missiles are tightly controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency and its allies in the region to insure that they only go to rebels who know how to use them and are not militant jihadists.
A few in Congress applauded the move, although longtime Republican critics of Obama’s foreign policy described it as overdue and likely not enough to change the course of the war, which has only grown more complex since Russian Federation started its own campaign of air strikes.
According to information from senior United States officials who have spoken to the press on condition of anonymity, the force will be “tiny” and sent to northern Syria to assist moderate forces.
While the deployment was small in scale, it was large in importance for a president who had refused to commit USA ground forces inside Syria beyond quick raids.
But the participation by Russian Federation and Iran in the attempt could mark a new and promising phase in the diplomacy since those countries have staunchly backed Assad.
Despite killing as many as 12,000 militants, the US bombing campaign has not significantly weakened the Islamic State’s capacity to hold territory, and the group’s ranks have been replenished by foreign fighters and others. “We’re not ruling anything out at this point”, the official said. A group monitoring the war reported fighting and coalition air strikes in the area.
The White House stressed Friday that the military moves were an “expansion” rather than a “change” in US strategy against ISIS.
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“All of our fighters coming out of the Arabian Gulf, way down there, two and a half to three hour transit time up into the theater”, Jones said.
