Neither the White House nor the Pentagon seem to know how the official count for the number of U.S. troops in Syria has more than doubled.
White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to explain Friday how there could be an 1,100 troop discrepancy in reported U.S. forces in Syria, instead pointing to the Pentagon. Similarly, Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said Thursday at a press conference he couldn’t speak for the Oval Office on whether or not they were aware of the true number of troops in the nation.
“That is their purview,” Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday. “That is something that we have always been pretty consistent on.”
Ryder said he had “recently learned” that the number had been 2,000 since “before the fall of Assad regime.” The original 900 figure counts the long-term personnel stationed in the country, while the additional 1,100 were described as “temporary rotational forces,” Ryder told the press Thursday.
It remains unclear whether or not President Joe Biden knew of the true number of troops, and the White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment on the discrepancy.
The U.S. operates military bases in Syria to counteract ISIS, most frequently aiding the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). ISIS’ presence was drastically cut down in the Middle East during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.
The SDF are fighting the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA). If the SNA continues to push into SDF territory, it may compromise the detainment of 9,000 ISIS fighters in SDF custody, which may allow them to reestablish themselves in the region.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was toppled on Dec. 8 by a rebel group spearheaded by Islamic fundamentalist terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). U.S. troops are currently deployed to counter ISIS and aid the SDF.
President-elect Donald Trump may decrease involvement in Syria, as he stated in a post on Truth Social Dec. 7 that he wants the U.S. to stay uninvolved in Syria and that there was not much to gain.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
How does the Pentagon “recently learn” that it has more than double the number of US troops in Syria than it claimed to have a day earlier? pic.twitter.com/fydxpWcNqT
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) December 20, 2024
