Troop Creep: Pentagon Reveals It Actually Has 2,000 Troops in Syria, Not 900

The Pentagon on Thursday admitted there are actually 2,000 American troops in Syria, not the 900 it previously said were in the country.

The admission comes as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office in a month, and days after members of his transition team arrived at the Pentagon to begin the transition between the outgoing and incoming administrations.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder characterized the higher troop count as a “surprise” — without clarifying if Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin or President Joe Biden knew there were 2,000, not 900 U.S. troops in Syria.

Ryder said at a briefing Thursday:

As you know, we have been briefing you regularly that there are approximately 900 U.S. troops deployed to Syria. In light of the situation in Syria and the significant interest, we recently learned that those numbers were higher, and so asked to look into it, I learned today that in fact there are approximately 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria.

Ryder said the troops were “considered temporary rotational forces that deploy to meet shifting mission requirements” whereas the 900 were on “longer term deployments” of nine to 12 months.

“Given that this number is significantly higher than what we’ve been briefing, I wanted to let you know as soon as I found out this information,” he said.

Ryder said all 2,000 forces were focused on the U.S. military’s mission to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. He declined to say how many were special operations forces but said most were Army.

He said the additional forces were there to meet “emerging mission requirements” associated with that mission.

It is not clear how the lead spokesperson for the secretary of defense was not told sooner how many U.S. troops there actually were in Syria, when he had been briefing members of the press that it was 900.

He also could not say when the troop presence increased, other than “it’s been for awhile.” When pressed, he said, “it would probably be fair to say at a minimum months.”

Ryder said Austin has not spoken to the Central Command Commander Gen. Michael Kurilla about the discrepancy in troop numbers.

Ryder said he would see what orders to Syria Austin himself signed off on and try to provide more information.

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