President Obama has authorized sending “less than 50” special operations forces to work in Syria with “local opposition” forces to “train, advise and assist” them in their fight against the Islamic State, a White House spokesman confirmed on Friday.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the troops would not serve in combat roles, but admitted that they could find themselves in harm’s way, like Army Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, who perished during a special operations forces raid in Iraq last week.
“They do not have a combat mission; they have a training, advise and assist role,” Earnest said. “They will not be charging to take a hill.”
They will be in the “vicinity offering advice and assistance,” and therefore could be in danger, Earnest said. But they will “not be leading the charge.”
A senior defense official would not rule out the possibility of the special operators eventually going into combat, but said for now their mission would be to provide something the U.S. effort has so far lacked: eyes on the ground in Syria.
The official noted that the deployment would be relatively short term, lasting only a matter of months, and that the troops would work with a variety of local forces, including the Syrian Arab Coalition and Kurdish groups.
“The whole point of this exercise is to get on the ground, see what’s there, see what we can work with and then get out from there,” the official said.
The official said the deployment would go hand-in-hand with other efforts, such as a “thickening” of U.S. airstrikes designed to help seal Syria’s border with Turkey from the flow of foreign fighters and aid to the Islamic State.
Twelve A-10 close-air support aircraft recently deployed to the NATO airbase at Incirlik, Turkey, and about 12 F-15 fighters would soon join them to add more punch to the coalition’s air campaign, the official said.
The moves are an “intensification of a strategy” that President Obama announced more than a year ago “for building the capacity of local forces inside of Syria to take the fight to ISIL in their own country,” Earnest said, using the administration’s acronym for the Islamic State.
He also conceded that their deployment “is not a short-term mission” and said congressional leaders were notified of this “intensification” of the president’s strategy.
On Capitol Hill, the Republican leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees said the “intensification” was not enough.
“Unfortunately, this limited action is yet another insufficient step in the Obama administration’s policy of gradual escalation,” said Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz. “Such grudging incrementalism is woefully inadequate to the scale of the challenge we face — Syrian and Iraqi civilians are dying on the battlefield every day, hundreds of thousands of refugees are flooding into Europe, the erosion of America’s credibility is accelerating, and America’s foes are rapidly destabilizing the rules-based international order.”
Added House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas: “A more serious effort against ISIS in Syria is long overdue. Absent a larger coherent strategy, however, these steps may prove to be too little too late. I do not see a strategy for success, rather it seems the administration is trying to avoid a disaster while the president runs out the clock.”
Absent a legitimate government with which the Pentagon can coordinate, the U.S.-led coalition battling ISIS focuses on “enhancing the capacity of moderate opposition forces on the ground inside of Syria,” Earnest said.
“Some of those efforts have included carrying out military airstrikes in support of their operations on the ground,” he said. “In some cases, those local fighting forces have been enhanced through decisions that the president has made to resupply them, offering them military equipment and ammunition that they have used to effectively make progress against ISIL.”
The U.S. is “ramping up,” but the mission focusing on propping up, aiding and assisting local forces “has not changed,” Earnest said.
Obama didn’t personally announce the move because he has explained his strategy on many occasions and “our strategy in Syria hasn’t changed,” Earnest said.
