The Pentagon says the additional forces had been in Syria for “some time” before the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, although they have not been publicly announced.
After years of telling the public that the United States had about 900 troops in Syria, the Pentagon now announced that about 2,000 troops were there – double the previous estimate.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said the additional US forces were already deployed in Syria before the former president’s overthrow Bashar al-Assad this month, although he didn’t specify a time frame.
“We have regularly informed you that there are approximately 900 US troops stationed in Syria. Given the situation in Syria and the level of interest, we recently learned that these numbers were higher,” Ryder said.
“When I was asked to look into this, I learned today that there are actually about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria.”
He added that 900 soldiers are deployed in Syria on a long-term basis, while the rest are “considered temporary rotational forces.”
According to Ryder, the previously unaccounted 1,100 soldiers have been in Syria “for a while.” Asked by reporters for more details, the Pentagon spokesman said they had been stationed there “at least for months.”
The United States began sending troops to Syria in 2014 with the stated goal of… Defeat ISIL (ISIS), but U.S. forces remained in the country following the group’s territorial defeat in 2017.
Washington has allied itself with the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which now controls large parts of eastern Syria.
However, Turkiye, a U.S. NATO partner, views the SDF as a threat to its national security due to its ties to Kurdish armed organizations, which it describes as “terrorist” groups.
After opposition fighters conquered western Syria and toppled al-Assad, they reignited fighting on the front lines in 2019 other parts of Syriawhere the conflict had been frozen for months.
Turkish-backed Syrian fighters and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which dominates the new government in Damascus, have seized territory previously held by the SDF in the past two weeks.
The prospect of an all-out war between Syrian forces supported by Turkiye and the SDF have raised questions about the future role of US troops in Syria.
On Thursday, Ryder said no changes were planned to the U.S. military presence in the country.
“There are no plans to discontinue the ‘defeat ISIS’ mission. I mean, again, ISIS continues to pose or pose a significant threat,” he said.
Beyond its troops in eastern Syria, the US has said it is working directly with Syria new authorities in Damascus, although it continues to officially describe HTS as a “terrorist” group.
Washington has laid out a number of demands it would like to see in Syria, including non-sectarian governance.
“The transition process and the new government must also adhere to clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities, to facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance to all those in need, to prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighboring bodies “Ensure that all stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons are secured and safely destroyed,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement last week.
Meanwhile, one of the US’s key allies, Israel, has bombed Syrian military installations and expanded its occupation beyond the Golan Heights through land grabs widely condemned throughout the Middle East.
