The U.S. military more than doubled the number of troops it has in Syria to fight ISIS prior to the collapse of the Assad regime earlier this month.
Pentagon officials have long said the United States had about 900 troops in the country, the exact total fluctuating frequently due to the ending and beginning of various deployments, though Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon’s spokesman, told reporters on Thursday that the tally is actually around 2,000 troops.
The increased number of troops arrived prior to Assad’s collapse and were deployed to augment the “core” 900 troops, whose mission is specifically to prevent the growth and reconstitution of ISIS, he said. The roughly 1,100 others are “temporary forces,” which Ryder said have been there for “months.”
Pentagon officials have repeatedly cited that 900 tally in recent weeks and did not disclose the surge of U.S. troops prior to Thursday. Ryder said he found out about the discrepancy earlier on Thursday.
The fall of the Assad regime earlier this month has complicated the U.S. mission. The U.S. and Israel are concerned about a power vacuum in the country that could be filled by the Islamic State or any other jihadist group.
Both the U.S. and Israel have carried out airstrikes in Syria in recent weeks. The U.S. has said it targeted ISIS fighters and their camps, while Israel has encroached into Syrian territory to establish a buffer zone and has carried out its own strikes aimed at destroying the Assad forces’ arsenal.
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The Americans’ primary partner in Syria is the Kurds, which hold territory in the northeast territory of the country. The U.S. forces work in partnership with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to carry out their anti-ISIS missions. Turkey, which borders Syria to the north, considers the SDF an extension of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which both the U.S. and Turkey have designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
The Turks and the SDF have battled in Syria since Assad’s fall. The U.S. is hoping to broker a ceasefire between them to ensure that the SDF, the U.S.’s most reliable partner in the country, is not under attack and that defeating ISIS can remain a focal point.