The U.S. military expansion in Syria: What it is — and isn't

The new force of 250 American troops who've been ordered to Syria will operate near Islamic State territory, helping U.S. leaders decide which local rebel groups should receive military support.

Pentagon officials say these personnel will manage “transactional” relationship between Washington and the little-known militias. Rebel commanders who demonstrate progress against ISIS will be rewarded with U.S. airstrikes, weapons, ammunition and money
"Those forces that perform well will get additional U.S. support," said Peter Cook, a Defense Department spokesman, "and these particular U.S. forces will be in the business of trying to identify who those people are."

President Obama announced the deployment Monday during a visit to Germany, saying the additional troops would help to keep up "momentum" in the coalition campaign against ISIS.
The U.S forces will include special operations teams as well as logistics and medical personnel, Cook said.

“They'll be engaging with forces on the ground, getting a better picture of the battle space, improving our intelligence assessment and our targeting assessment as well,” Cook said.

The deployment marks a significant addition to the first cadre of 50 special operations troops who arrived in Syria in November. It will bring the total number of American personnel there at about 300.

“The original 50 are providing very, very helpful information,” Cook told reporters Monday. “Those [initial] forces have improved our picture of the battlefield, made connections with local, capable forces and enhanced our targeting efforts in Syria. These new forces will expand those efforts and build on what has been working.”
Since the first 50 American troops deployed to Syria last year, the American-backed rebel alliance has grown significantly and pushed the Islamic State out of several key towns. The long-term U.S. strategy is to limit militants' access to the group's self-proclaimed capital, Raqqah. The latest fighting has targeted al Shaddadi, a key town along a primary transit route linking ISIS’s two major cities, Raqqah and Mosul.

U.S. forces have reportedly set up a base camp at Rmeilan Air Base in the Syrian Kurdish region, providing a key supply line for U.S. operations in Syria, according to local reports.
The U.S. government considers many of the rebel groups in Syria to be extremists and not reliable partners for fighting the Islamic State. In some cases, American weapons ended up in the hands of groups linked to al Qaida or ISIS. Last year a train-and-equip effort was halted because very few Syrians could pass the strict vetting process.

Cook acknowledged the risks that American troops in Syria will face, but insisted this is not demonstrative of a combat mission, a term that Obama and many Pentagon officials deliberately avoid.

“They’re in harm's way — we should be crystal clear about that. And they will be able to defend themselves if they come under fire. But that is not the intent of this deployment,” Cook said.

“The idea is that they will not be engaged in direct combat, they will not be on the front lines. They will be providing support to those local forces that are taking the fight to ISIL,” Cook said, referencing another acronym for the group.

Already, the president's critics in Congress have signaled their dissatisfaction with the plan, namely the small U.S. footprint in Syria compared to Iraq, where the American military presence has swelled to more than 4,000 troops.
Among the risks facing American troops are the daily airstrikes that the Russian military continues to mount from its air base in western Syria. To help protect the initial force of 50, the U.S. used back channel communications to tell the Russians roughly where those American forces were located, an effort to avoid an incident could inflame tensions between Washington and Moscow.

On Monday Cook declined to say whether the U.S. will notify the Russians about the location of these additional forces.

“In the past we have identified, and we did identify a particular geographic area where we asked the Russians not to strike, and I am not going to discuss those conversations going forward, but we're going to take additional steps,” Cook said.

“You can be sure to take every step we can to preserve the safety of our personnel and limit the risk they face. But I'm not going to speak to particular conversations, you know, we will have in the future or have had with the Russians at this point.”