Defense

US sending 200 more troops to Syria

by Nikita Vladimirov - 12/10/16 12:24 PM ET

U.S. is planning to send 200 more troops to Syria in an effort to help stabilize the country plagued by armed conflict.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Saturday said the U.S. forces will primarily be sent to assist Syrian Kurdish and Arabic forces in their campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to ABC News.

{mosads}Carter said the new troops will help “to continue organizing, training, equipping, and otherwise enabling capable, motivated, local forces to take the fight to [ISIS], and also bringing down to bear the full weight of U.S. forces around the theater of operations like the funnel of a giant tornado.”

The additional forces will bring the total number of US military personnel in the country to 500 and will include trainers, advisers, special operations forces and explosive ordnance disposal teams.

A defense official told ABC News that the newly deployed forces will also assist and train the Syrian rebel forces in their objective to retake ISIS’s de facto capital Raqqa.

Syria continues to be a vital geopolitical region as both U.S. and Russia have committed to end the war in the country. However, Russia has heavily backed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s fight against rebel forces.

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