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.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Turkish Daily News. </s> Trump says US to send 1,500 more troops to Middle East

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will bolster its military presence in the Middle East with an additional 1,500 troops, President Donald Trump said Friday amid heightened tensions with Iran.

Trump said the troops would have a "mostly protective" role. He spoke to reporters on the White House lawn as he headed out on a trip to Japan.

The administration had notified Congress earlier in the day about the troop plans.

The forces would number "roughly" 1,500 and would deploy in the coming weeks, "with their primary responsibilities and activities being defensive in nature," according to a copy of the notification obtained by The Associated Press.

Their mission would include protecting U.S. forces already in the region and ensuring freedom of navigation, the notification said.

Earlier this week, officials said Pentagon planners had outlined plans that could have sent up to 10,000 military reinforcements to the region. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan later said planners hadn't settled on a figure.

The U.S. began reinforcing its presence in the Persian Gulf region this month in response to what it said was a threat from Iran.

The U.S. has tens of thousands of troops in the Middle East, including at a major Navy base in Bahrain and an Air Force base and operations center in Qatar. There are about 5,200 troops in Iraq and 2,000 in Syria.

Earlier this month, the U.S. sent thousands more into the region around Iran, including an aircraft carrier strike group, four bomber aircraft and fighter jets. </s> Baku. 23 September. REPORT.AZ/ United States and its partners are implementing the first air strikes at the "Islamic state" in Syria. Report informs citing Reuters, this was officially claimed by Pentagon.

"I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIL terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk land attack missiles,” Pentagon Spokesman, Rear Admiral John Kirby stated. “Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time,” he added.

President Barack Obama unveiled a new strategy against the ISIS on September 11. He said that he would not deploy American troops in Iraq, but intensify air strikes. Furthermore, Obama issued that Washington wanted to create and lead a broad coalition to fight against militants in Syria and Iraq.

Terroristic religious group "Islamic State" grew in strength during operations in Syria, where the ISIL fought against government forces. Several months ago, the IS has launched a massive attack on the northern and north-western provinces of Iraq and occupied a vast territory, where they announced the establishment of the so-called Islamic Caliphate. </s> WASHINGTON — President Trump has approved a plan to arm Syrian Kurds so they can participate in the battle to retake Raqqa from the Islamic State, a strategy that has drawn deep opposition from Turkey, a NATO ally.

American military commanders have long argued that arming the Y.P.G., a Kurdish militia fighting alongside Syrian Arab forces against the Islamic State, is the fastest way to seize Raqqa, the capital of the militants’ self-proclaimed caliphate.

And Mr. Trump, who made fighting Islamist militants a priority during his campaign, again showed the high regard he has for Pentagon generals by endorsing their advice when faced with a policy dilemma.

Turkey has objected vociferously to such a move, raising fears of a backlash that could prompt the Turks to curtail their cooperation with Washington in the struggle against the Islamic State.

A high-level delegation of Turkish officials was informed of the decision by Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, when they visited the White House on Monday, and the Pentagon announced the move on Tuesday.

Mr. Trump’s decision on arming the Syrian Kurds comes as Iraqi forces, backed by American and allied air power and artillery, are making headway in Mosul. American military commanders have argued for simultaneous offenses in Raqqa and Mosul so the Islamic State would be forced to defend multiple fronts.

The president’s decision also comes as his top advisers recommended sending 3,000 to 5,000 more American troops to try to break a stalemate in another hot spot: the 15-year war in Afghanistan.

 Dana W. White, the chief Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a statement that the arming was necessary to ensure that Raqqa could be taken “in the near future.”

“Yesterday, the president authorized the Department of Defense to equip Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces as necessary to ensure a clear victory over ISIS in Raqqa, Syria,” she said, using the name of the umbrella group for Arab and Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Ms. White added that the United States would take steps to ensure that Turkey did not face “additional security risks.”

There was no immediate comment from the Turkish government, which considers the Kurdish force to be terrorists, and it remains to be seen whether the assurances the Trump administration is offering the Turks will be sufficient to ease the concerns of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is scheduled to meet with Mr. Trump in Washington next week.

The weapons that the United States will provide Kurdish and Arab fighters in the anti-Islamic State coalition include heavy machine guns, mortars, anti-tank weapons, armored cars and engineering equipment.

American military officials have said that weapons are needed to help the lightly armed Kurdish and Arab fighters cope with urban warfare in Raqqa against unyielding Islamic State militants who are equipped with car bombs and even some tanks they captured from the Syrian Army.

To address Turkish concerns that the arms might be used against their forces one day, the supply of weapons and ammunition will be limited to what the Kurds and Arab fighters need to carry out specific operations, American officials said.

 After the battle is over, an effort will be made to retrieve any excess equipment. American advisers will also monitor the weapons that are provided to the Kurds and will cut off the supply if they discover that they are being smuggled for use elsewhere or misused, United States officials said.

To further mollify the Turks, most of the fighters who will be involved in the assault on Raqqa are expected to be Arabs, and the Pentagon said the Y.P.G. would not occupy the city after Islamic State fighters had been ousted. “Raqqa and all liberated territory should return to the governance of local Syrian Arabs,” Ms. White said. “We do not envision a long-term Y.P.G. presence.”

The United States has long worked with the Y.P.G., or People’s Protection Units, under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The American military has always emphasized that those forces includes Arab fighters, who make up nearly half of the total force and most of the fighters near Raqqa. But the Y.P.G. is generally considered to have the most experienced and battle-hardened fighters.

The Turkish government has long insisted that the Kurdish militia is closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist group known as the P.K.K. That group is listed by Turkey, the United States and Europe as a terrorist organization.

Any hope that Mr. Erdogan might soften his position on arming the Y.P.G. after winning a referendum that gave him vast powers appeared to fade last month after Turkish warplanes carried out an airstrike against the Syrian Kurds.

According to Turkish news reports, the officials who met with General McMaster on Monday included Gen. Hulusi Akar, the commander of the Turkish armed forces; Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s intelligence chief; and Ibrahim Kalin, the presidential spokesman. Their mission, the Turkish news media reported, was to talk the Trump administration out of arming the Kurds. Instead, they were informed that the decision had already been made.

Syria analysts, as well as current and former senior American officials, said Mr. Trump’s decision was not surprising given the military’s insistence on arming the Kurds for the impending battle for Raqqa, but they warned it could damage broader relations with Turkey.

 “This decision was probably necessary if the coalition to defeat the Islamic State was to take Raqqa without huge numbers of U.S. troops being directly involved,” said Andrew Exum, a former top Pentagon Middle East policy official who served as an Army Ranger. “But this decision — to arm a group closely associated with a foreign terrorist organization, and one that has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state — will likely reverberate through U.S. relations with Turkey for decades to come.”

James F. Jeffrey, a former United States ambassador to Turkey and a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, agreed that the decision would add to the tension in American-Turkish relations. “We’re putting Turkey in a very difficult position,” he said.

Syrian Kurds, however, hailed the move. Alan Hassan, reached via internet messaging in Qamishli, in northeastern Syria, part of the de facto semiautonomous zone Kurds have carved out during the Syrian war, said that Mr. Trump’s decision gave new legitimacy to an existing partnership with the Y.P.G.

“In the beginning, American support was secret,” he said. “Now it is public. The relationship has changed from undeclared to declared.”

Former President Barack Obama also favored arming the Kurds, although divisions among his aides were so pronounced that he did not come to that view until his last week in office. During his administration’s deliberations, American diplomats in Ankara warned of a possible Turkish backlash, while military officials insisted that the Y.P.G. was the only option if Raqqa was to be taken in the coming months.

Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the commander of American forces in the Middle East, has acknowledged the challenges of dealing with two pivotal allies in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria who essentially loathe each other — the Turks and the Syrian Kurds.

But General Votel and senior American counterterrorism officials have said it is essential to rout the Islamic State from its stronghold, principally to weaken its ability to plan, direct and enable terrorist plots against the West.

 In recent weeks, analysts said, the Islamic State has tried to slip some of its senior planners and operatives out of Raqqa before the battle to maintain essential functions like command and control, recruiting, handling of finances and the ability to help carry out plots against the West.

That is one reason that even as the American-backed Syrian Kurdish and Arab forces have increasingly tightened a noose around the city, and the coalition has pummeled it with airstrikes, allied fighters have also struck targets south of Raqqa, near Deir al-Zour and Mayadeen, where many of the senior Islamic State members have fled. </s> The U.S. military has ruled out enemy contact as the cause of the recent deaths of two American service members and injury of five others while they were participating in the U.S.-led offensive against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq Sunday.

“Initial reports indicate the incident was not due to enemy contact,” notes the U.S. military in a statement.

Nevertheless, the United States armed forces did acknowledge that the American casualties took place during “combat operations in northern Iraq” on Sunday.

The American troops involved in the incident, which the military has said is under investigation, were part of the U.S.-led coalition that has been combating the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq since 2014.

U.S. officials have not officially released information about the identities of the Americans who were killed and injured.

American Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, paid his respects to the family of the troops, saying:

The entire counter-ISIS Coalition sends our deepest condolences to these heroes’ families, friends, and teammates. There are no words to describe the respect I have for you and sorrow I have for your loss. I hope there is some small solace in knowing their loss has meaning for our country and all the nations of the Coalition as the fallen service members were fighting to defeat a truly evil enemy and to protect our homelands.

An estimated 5,000 U.S. troop are believed to be participating in Iraq-based operations against ISIS.

“A month after Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi declared victory over ISIS in Mosul, the coalition continues to aid the Iraqi armed forces fight against ISIS in other towns throughout the country,” notes CNN. “Within Iraq, the coalition’s main focus is to liberate the towns of Tal Afar, Hawija and the town of Al Qaim in the Euphrates River valley. The coalition is also working to liberate Raqqa, ISIS’ de-facto capital in Syria.”

ISIS still controls about 20 percent of the territory (35,000 square miles) it held at its peak at the beginning of 2015.

According to a tally by the Pentagon, there have been at least 42 U.S. fatalities linked to Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), the name of the ongoing American offensive against ISIS in the Middle East.

Of the 42 American casualties, which likely does not include the recent deaths in Iraq, terrorists have killed the majority (28) in combat. Jihadists have also killed at least two American civilians affiliated with OIR.

Moreover, there have been at least 208 injury incidents involving U.S. troops fighting ISIS under Operation Inherent Resolve.
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.