ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Pentagon on Thursday acknowledged that nearly 2,000 United States troops are currently stationed in Syria, more than double earlier official numbers. “We have been briefing you regularly that there are approximately 900 US troops deployed to Syria… We recently learned that those numbers were higher and so asked to look into it. I learned today that in fact there are approximately 2,000 US troops in Syria,” Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said during a press briefing. Explaining the discrepancy, he noted that “these additional forces are considered temporary rotational forces that deploy to meet shifting mission requirements, whereas the core 900 deployers are on longer-term deployments.” The US troops are in the country to combat the Islamic State (ISIS). They have provided the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), their partner force in northeast Syria (Rojava), with training and military support. Ryder added that the additional troops were in Syria prior to the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad earlier this month. “These forces, which augment the defeat-ISIS mission, were there before the fall of the Assad regime,” he said. The US has carried out frequent strikes against ISIS to prevent the group from exploiting a security vacuum after the fall of the regime. ISIS militants seized new territory in Syria’s deserts and the SDF have announced their inability to sustain anti-ISIS operations as they are under mounting pressure from attacks by the Syrian National Army (SNA) with Turkish air support. The SNA forms part of a coalition of militias that united against the Assad regime. US forces have also carried out airstrikes against Iran-aligned militia groups in Syria and Iraq that have attacked American interests in the region.
