US is sending 200 more troops to Syria to battle Islamic State

MANAMA, Bahrain — U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says as many as 200 more American troops are being sent to Syria to help Kurdish and Arab fighters capture the Islamic State group's key stronghold of Raqqa.

Carter made the announcement Saturday at a security conference in Manama, Bahrain.

The extra troops will include special operations forces and are in addition to 300 U.S. troops already authorized for the effort to recruit, organize, train and advise local Syrian forces to combat the Islamic State.

Carter said the extra troops will help the local forces in their anticipated push to retake Raqqa, the de facto capital of the extremist group's self-styled caliphate, and to deny sanctuary to the Islamic State after Raqqa is captured. </s> "The United States will deploy approximately 200 additional US forces to Syria," Carter said, adding that the new contingent would include special operations forces, trainers, advisers, and explosive ordinance disposal teams.

"This latest commitment of additional forces within Syria is another important step in enabling our partners to deal ISIL a lasting defeat," Carter said, using the government's preferred acronym for the terror organization.

Carter made the announcement while speaking at the Manama Dialogue, a regional security summit hosted in the capital of the Gulf state of Bahrain.

The decision will nearly double the number of US troops authorized to operate in Syria. President Barack Obama had in April set a cap of 300 for the number of military advisers permitted in Syria, though the actual number of advisers on the ground is thought to be fewer than that.

Forces in Syria have been primarily working with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an umbrella organization that includes Kurdish and Arab units. Those fighters have enjoyed some success against ISIS, coming within 15 miles of Raqqa, according to Carter. A senior defense official told CNN that the actual adjustment to the troop cap would be 203 personnel and that their purpose was to boost the assault on Raqqa. The deployment "had been anticipated for some time" the official added, as the final battle looms against the several thousand ISIS fighters believed to be in Raqqa. The new deployment of American personnel could help in the final assault on that city by enabling the training of additional fighters that could be key to ejecting ISIS. US and Turkey agree to long-term plan on Raqqa US and Turkey agree to long-term plan on Raqqa "We're getting into what is predominantly traditionally more Arab territory," so more Arab fighters are needed, the defense official said. "We've always been very conscious of the fact that Raqqa is an Arab city." The official noted that "more and more Arab fighters have wanted to be part of the coalition we have fighting in northeast Syria," but said that this influx has presented challenges in terms of training and equipping these new recruits, thereby requiring the additional US personnel. Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the counter-ISIS coalition, told reporters Thursday that, in anticipation of the push on Raqqa, the SDF was boosting its ranks with more than 1,000 new recruits. The United States is also using its air power to lay the ground for the coming battle. Dorrian said coalition aircraft had conducted nearly 300 strikes against ISIS in support of the offensive, with America's Syrian allies capturing more than 270 square miles of territory. Carter drew attention to a counter-ISIS strike on Thursday that involved the destruction of 168 oil tanker trucks. Carter called it "the largest airstrike of this kind to date." But US military officials anticipate a tougher fight in the days ahead. "Daesh considers Raqqa their capital in Syria, so we expect resistance to stiffen as forces move closer to the city," Dorrian told reporters last month, using another name for the terror group. And even after Raqqa and Mosul are captured, Carter predicted that the fight against ISIS would continue for some time. "There will still be much more to do after that to make sure that once defeated, ISIL stays defeated," he said. </s> Two hundred additional American special operations troops are headed to Syria to help Syrian Kurdish and Arabic forces fighting ISIS, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Saturday at a security conference in Bahrain.

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The troop increase will bring the total number of U.S. troops in Syria to 500.

A defense official said the additional troops will help train, advise and assist the growing number of Syrian rebel forces preparing to retake and hold Raqqa, ISIS' de facto capital city in Syria.

Carter, who made the announcement at the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Manama Dialogue, said the additional forces will help "to continue organizing, training, equipping, and otherwise enabling capable, motivated, local forces to take the fight to ISIL, 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."

He added, "This latest commitment of additional forces within Syria is another important step in enabling our partners to deal ISIL a lasting defeat."

The additional 200 troops being deployed to Syria will include special operations forces, trainers, advisers, and explosive ordnance disposal teams.

The 300 American special operations forces already in Syria mainly advise and assist the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of 45,000 Syrian Kurdish and Arab rebel forces that have been fighting ISIS. A small number of the American forces have also been advising and assisting Turkish forces fighting ISIS in northwestern Syria.

With support from American airstrikes, as well as advisers on the ground, SDF forces have pushed ISIS out of strongholds in northern and eastern Syria and are now pushing towards Raqqa.

Carter said Saturday that SDF forces have fought their way to 15 miles north of that city.

Plans call for the SDF to envelope Raqqa with Kurdish fighters remaining outside of the city so Arab fighters can retake it from ISIS.

A U.S. defense official said the troop increase "is tied to the growing number of local forces now willing to participate in this fight, and our efforts to enable them."

The SDF has been a mostly Kurdish force with a smaller component of Arab fighters. But as the SDF has grown to 45,000 in number, the number of Arab fighters has also grown to 13,000.

The recruitment of local Arab fighters from the area around Raqqa has helped boost those numbers.

The push towards Raqqa began in early November, coming on the heels of the Iraqi offensive on Mosul in Iraq. Two months into that offensive Iraqi forces have met stiff resistance as they have pushed into the city's eastern limits.

5,262 American troops are authorized to be in Iraq to train, advise and assist Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting ISIS.

Carter restated during his remarks in Bahrain that after ISIS is defeated in Iraq and Syria, American troops will remain in that country to help with its training and advising mission to help Iraqi forces consolidate security over the rest of the country. </s> NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish-led forces in Syria said they would complete the evacuation of thousands of civilians from Islamic State’s last redoubt in the area on Friday, and welcomed a White House reversal of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out all U.S. troops.

With Washington’s allies poised for victory against Islamic State fighters making a final stand in a pocket near the Iraqi border, the White House announced plans on Thursday to keep “a small peacekeeping force” of 200 troops in Syria.

The announcement partially reversed Trump’s abrupt decision in December to withdraw the entire 2,000-strong U.S. contingent, which had alarmed Washington’s Kurdish allies and prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to quit.

An administration official later put the total number of troops to stay at 400, split between a safe zone being negotiated for northeastern Syria and a U.S. military base at Tanf, near the border with Iraq and Jordan.

Although the U.S. contingent would now be small, the official indicated that the 200 troops in the northwest would be part of a wider commitment of about 800-1,500 troops also drawn from European allies to set up and observe a safe zone.

Kurdish leaders suggested the U.S. troop decision could have a large impact on the fate of the area, preventing a security vacuum. Washington could keep control of the air space and European allies could complement the force with more troops.

The planned assault on the final Islamic State redoubt in the area, Baghouz, would effectively end the territorial rule of the jihadist group, which ruled around a third of both Iraq and Syria at its self-proclaimed Caliphate’s height four years ago.

Reporters near the front line at Baghouz saw dozens of trucks leaving loaded with civilians, and empty ones driving inside accompanied by fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia.

Mustafa Bali, an SDF spokesman, said the evacuation would be completed on Friday, with thousands of civilians still inside the pocket from an estimated 7,000 at the start of the day, though by nightfall it was unclear if it had been completed. More than 20,000 civilians have left Baghouz in recent weeks, according to previous SDF estimates.

The U.S.-led coalition which supports the SDF has said Islamic State’s “most hardened fighters” are holed up inside.

“If we succeed in evacuating all the civilians, at any moment we will take the decision to storm Baghouz or force the terrorists to surrender,” said Bali.

Though the fall of Baghouz would mark a milestone in the campaign against Islamic State, the militant group is still seen as a security threat, using guerrilla tactics and still holding some territory in a remote area west of the Euphrates River.

The battle against Islamic State in the area has taken place since December in the shadow of Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw all U.S. troops, which raised doubt about the future of the fighters that had served as U.S. allies on the ground.

The Kurdish-led authorities in the north welcomed the White House reversal. They had feared that a total U.S. withdrawal would leave their area exposed to attack by Turkey, which sees the main Kurdish militia as a national security threat.

“We evaluate the White House decision ... positively,” Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of foreign relations in the region held by the U.S.-backed SDF told Reuters.

“This decision may encourage other European states, particularly our partners in the international coalition against terrorism, to keep forces in the region,” Omar added. “I believe that keeping a number of American troops and a larger number of (other) coalition troops, with air protection, will play a role in securing stability and protecting the region too.”

The SDF’s top commander earlier this week called for 1,000 to 1,500 international troops to remain in Syria to help fight Islamic State and expressed hope Washington would halt Trump’s plans for a total pullout.

A Western diplomat said it remained to be seen whether European allies would contribute troops, or whether the force would be able to secure the area.

“Even if 200 troops remain and the U.S. decides to continue claiming the airspace, it’s not clear whether that would convince Britain, France and other partners to stay — and whether that could keep the Syrian regime out of the northeast for now, or Turkey, or an IS resurgence.”

The Kurds, who want to preserve the autonomy they have carved out, have made overtures to President Bashar al-Assad, urging government forces to deploy at the borders as Washington withdraws. The U.S. decision may strengthen the Kurds’ hand.

“I believe that these forces in this region ... will be a motivation, an incentive and also a means of pressure on Damascus to try seriously to have a dialogue to resolve the Syrian crisis,” Omar said. </s> The United States-led international coalition's operation to recapture Raqqa from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant started on the night of June 2, Turkey's prime minister has said, informing that Washington briefed Ankara ahead of the operation.

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The United States announces that it will deploy an additional 200 troops to help force the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant from Al-Raqqah.