Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says he’s not ready to make any recommendation about possibly sending more troops deployments to Syria or Iraq, until he has had a chance to confer with more allies and his own commanders.
Speaking to reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Mattis said the question of whether the U.S. might send more troops to Syria to hasten the defeat of the Islamic State is not one he would be “comfortable answering on my own at this point.
“I first want to talk to the other allies and we’ll decide where we’re going,” Mattis said at a news conference, at which he also revealed he will soon be traveling to the region.
“I’m going to fly from here into the Middle East,” he said. “Once we know what we have a mutual appreciation of the situation, then we’ll go forward.”
Pentagon officials Thursday downplayed a CNN report that suggested Mattis might propose that the U.S. could recommend sending conventional ground combat forces into northern Syria.
In response, the Pentagon said while a number of options are being discussed, none has been formalized and no decisions have been made.
“We are in the process of conducting our 30-day review of the strategy to defeat ISIS as directed by the president,” said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. “We are considering a number of measures to accelerate the campaign as part of that review, but no decisions have been made.”
Pentagon sources said one option that could put conventional forces on the ground, but not on the front lines, in Syria would be deployment of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS.
The ground-based artillery has been used effectively in Iraq to augment airstrikes, as Iraq forces liberate Mosul.
The artillery system, operated by U.S. Marines based miles south of the fighting, has provided additional firepower to support the Iraqi Security Forces.
It could be employed in a similar manner in Syria to assist the Syrian Arab Coalition as it continues to surround isolate the self-declared Os;a,oc State capital in Raqqa.
Sources say another viable option would be to base Apache attack helicopters in Syria, closer to the fight to provide rapid close-air support for local fighters if needed.
While nothing has been ruled out at this point, sources indicate that U.S. commanders have little appetite for sending U.S. combat troops to the front lines.
