President Obama has authorized sending “less than 50” special military personnel 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 American Joshua Wheeler who perished during a special 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,” he said.
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.”
The move is 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 preferred acronym for the Islamic State.
He also conceded that their deployment “is not a short-term mission” and that congressional leaders were notified of this “intensification” of the president’s strategy.
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 occasion and “our strategy in Syria hasn’t changed,” Earnest said.
Source: Washington Examiner
