The U.S. is sending a small number of special operations forces into northern Syria to assist local rebel troops in the fight against the Islamic State group, a major about-face for President Barack Obama, who previously pledged at least eight times to not put boots on the ground in Syria.
Obama has ordered the deployment of a maximum of 50 commandos to advise the rebel group known as the Syrian Arab Coalition, who have fought within 30 miles of the Islamic State group's de facto capital of Raqqa, Syria, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest, reported The Associated Press. The Syrian Arab Coalition consist of 5,000 fighters from 10 so-called moderate rebel groups and was given 50 tons of U.S. ammunition earlier in the month.
Earnest insisted the U.S. forces will not be engaged in a "combat mission" and would only train, advise and assist local forces as they intensify their push against the Islamic State group in Raqqa, reported ABC News.
"They're being deployed to Syria with a training, advising and assist mission, and that's not to downplay the serious risk that they're facing," he said. "It's just an effort to be as specific and as clear as possible about what exactly they're being asked to do."
"These forces are at risk in a very dangerous part of the world and in a dangerous country," Earnest continued. "The president has also made clear that he wants to make sure that these special operators have the equipment that they need to defend themselves, and that's what they have."
It marks a major shift for the Obama administration and the first full-time deployment of U.S. troops to Syria. CNN notes that U.S. special forces have previously conducted brief, secretive missions on the ground in Syria.
"This is an intensification of a strategy that the president announced more than a year ago," Earnest added. The president's national security team reportedly recommended the shift late last week.
"The president does expect that they can have an impact in intensifying our strategy for building the capacity of local forces inside of Syria for taking the fight on the ground to [the Islamic State group] in their own country," Earnest said. "That has been the core element of the military component of our strategy from the beginning: building the capacity of local forces on the ground."
Since August 2013, Obama has said on eight separate occasions that he would not put boots on the ground in Syria, as The Washington Post notes.
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said Friday that she supports Obama's decision to send ground forces to Syria.
Campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said Clinton "sees merit in the targeted use of special operations personnel," adding that she also strongly "supports ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the conflict," reports AP.
She does, however, oppose the U.S. entering a larger ground war to fight the Islamic State group in the Middle East, according to Merrill.
The introduction of American forces comes the same day that world powers, including the U.S., Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, offered support for a United Nations-led diplomatic process to set the conditions for ending the brutal four-year-long civil war in Syria. The conflict has left 200,000 dead and 14 million displaced, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The agreement paves the way for the Syrian government and opposition groups to move forward on central components of a political deal backed by all regional and international powers. Russia and the U.S. still remain at odds over the fate of the Syrian president.
