The United States will deploy dozens of special operations troops to northern Syria from next month to advise opposition forces in their fight against Islamic State, a major policy shift for President Barack Obama and a step he has long resisted to avoid getting dragged into another war in the Middle East.
The planned deployment, along with the U.S. decision this week to include Iran in diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, represents the biggest change in the United States’ Syria policy since it began a bombing campaign against Islamic State targets there in September 2014.
The decision by Obama, deeply averse to committing troops to unpopular wars in the Middle East, would mark the first sustained U.S. troop presence in Syria and raise the risk of American casualties, although U.S. officials stressed the forces were not meant to engage in front-line combat.
“This is a dangerous place on the globe and they are at risk, and there’s no denying that,” said Earnest, who repeatedly rejected the idea that the deployment would constitute a ground combat mission, which Obama has long rejected as a solution in Syria.
Earnest said the new mission in Syria was open ended and did not rule out the possibility of sending additional special forces troops into Iraq. Obama spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday about the fight against Islamic State, Earnest said.
The Obama administration is under pressure to ramp up America’s effort against Islamic State, particularly after the militant group captured the Iraqi city of Ramadi in May and following the failure of a U.S. military program to train and arm thousands of Syrian rebels.
The planned deployment adds to an increasingly volatile conflict in Syria, where Russia and Iran have increased up their military support for President Bashar al-Assad’s fight against rebels in the four-and-a-half year civil war.
Russia said when it began air strikes last month that it would also target the Islamic State militant group, but its planes have hit other rebel groups opposed to Assad, including groups backed by Washington.
The decision to send U.S. special forces to Syria will put U.S. forces “in harm’s way,” U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday, adding he did not rule out the possibility of further special forces deployments to Syria.
This month a U.S. soldier was killed in Iraq participating in a Kurdish-led mission to rescue Islamic State hostages.
Some in Congress applauded the planned deployment, although Republican critics described it as overdue and unlikely to change the course of the war. Senator John McCain, who has long assailed Obama’s foreign policy, said it amounted to “grudging incrementalism” that was insufficient to resolve the conlict.
Many Republicans, including leading candidates in the 2016 presidential race, have called for a more interventionist Middle East policy, slamming Obama for his nuclear deal with Iran and for not being tougher on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The introduction of U.S. forces on the ground marks a shift after more than a year of limiting the Syria mission to air strikes against Islamic State. Before last year, Obama had ruled out an American presence on the ground in Syria. Over the past year, however, he has emphasized that he would not send U.S. “combat” troops there.
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