Pentagon: American military contingent in Syria doubled with special forces

US Defense Department spokesman Patrick Ryder said there are currently about 2,000 US troops in Syria.

Note that the Pentagon previously confirmed the presence of approximately 900 American troops in Syria. Thus, the size of the US military contingent in this country has approximately doubled.

The increase in numbers has been “going on for some time” and those troops have been in Syria for “at least a few months,” Ryder said.

The additional forces, as the Pentagon spokesman noted, support the mission to combat the Islamic State and are not directly related to the latest events in Syria (the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime and the seizure of power by the Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its allies).

A Pentagon spokesman explained that the “core 900” US troops are in Syria on official assignments of 9-12 months, with another 1,100 troops on a temporary basis, for 30-90 days, “to meet changing mission needs.” Moreover, most of the additional military personnel are special forces.

When asked why the US Department of Defense had not previously disclosed the updated figures, Ryder replied that he learned about them only on December 19 and cited “sensitivity from the point of view of diplomatic and operational security,” Interfax reports.