The U.S. will send a contingent of “less than 50” Special Operations Forces to war-torn Syria to “assist, advise and train” moderate groups fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime and the Islamic State (IS).
Troop presence on the ground will be a first for the U.S. since the Syrian conflict began, but this does not mark a change in President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy, the White House said on Friday.
“This is only an intensification of our strategy which has always been to strengthen local forces and enhance their capacity” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“The presence of U.S. troops will be a force multiplier in the fight against the IS. They will have no combat role,” he said, adding that Mr. Obama’s position against the U.S. taking up any combat role in the region has not changed.
The U.S.’s latest move comes only days after U.S. special forces took part in a hostage rescue operation in Iraq and roped in Iran into the negotiations for resolving the Syrian crisis.
While on the one hand seeking to reach out to Iran and Russia and on the other increasing its own involvement in the conflict, the Obama administration raised its stake substantially in the conflict.
President Barack Obama has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of deploying U.S. troops in Syria, but the protracted nature of the conflict and the humanitarian crisis, reflected most tellingly in the waves of distress migrants reaching Europe, may be forcing a rethink.
Iran and Russia continue to support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Russia even upgraded its support by bombing anti-Assad rebels over recent weeks.
The U.S., however, remains insistent that the exit of Assad regime is necessary for resolving the situation. White House spokesman Josh Earnest reiterated on Friday that a “political transition in Syria” was imperative.
Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace earlier this week, Secretary of State John Kerry had said the U.S. “simply could not allow this [the conflict] to continue” in Syria.
“And that is why President Obama is ratcheting up what we are doing. Under President Obama’s leadership, we have led a 65-member coalition to take on Daesh [Islamic State]. We’ve launched more than 7,300 airstrikes. But ultimately, to defeat Daesh, we have to end the war in Syria. And that is America’s goal,” Mr. Kerry said, adding that Russian bombings on groups opposed to Mr. Assad was complicating matters.
“[Russian strikes] may even strengthen the illusion on Assad’s part that he can just indefinitely maintain his hold on power. And if that’s what he thinks, I got news: there’s no way that a number of the other countries involved in this coalition are going to let up or stop. It won’t happen.”
