HOW PRESIDENT OBAMA WILL SEND MORE TROOPS TO SYRIA (1102 hits)
President Barack Obama will announce later on Monday plans to send up to 250 additional U.S. special forces troops to Syria to support local Syrian forces fighting against Islamic State, a White House adviser said.
The deployment will increase U.S. forces in Syria to about 300. Its goal is to accelerate recent gains against Islamic State and appears to reflect growing confidence in the ability of U.S.-backed forces inside Syria and Iraq to claw back territory from the hardline Sunni Islamist group.
"We've seen across parts of northern and eastern Syria progress as ISIL has been pushed out of some strongholds," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters in the northern German city of Hanover, the last stop on Obama's six-day foreign tour.
"We want to accelerate that progress and we believe the commitment of additional U.S. special forces can play a critical role."
