The United States doubled the number of its forces in Syria to fight the Islamic State group before the overthrow of President Bashar Assad’s government, the Pentagon said Thursday.
The U.S. had previously said 900 troops were in Syria, but Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, announced that 2,000 were there and had been for a while.
#Syria #Pentagon #military
The U.S. had previously said 900 troops were in Syria, but Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, announced that 2,000 were there and had been for a while.
#Syria #Pentagon #military
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NewsTranscript
00:00We have been briefing you regularly that there are approximately 900 U.S. troops deployed to Syria.
00:06In light of the situation in Syria and the significant interest, we recently learned
00:12that those numbers were higher. And so, asked to look into it, I learned today
00:18that in fact there are approximately 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria.
00:23As I understand it, and as it was explained to me, these additional forces are considered
00:28temporary rotational forces that deploy to meet shifting mission requirements,
00:33whereas the core 900 deployers are on longer-term deployments. Those forces,
00:39what they've been doing is all focused on the Defeat ISIS mission. And again,
00:43that core 900, approximately 900, those are going to be your longer-term deployers,
00:48right? Nine to 12 months, as I understand it, versus temporary forces, which are going to
00:53rotate in on a 30- to 90-day basis, again, as it's been explained to me, that are there to
00:59meet any type of emerging mission requirements associated with the Defeat ISIS mission.