The exact number of U.S. advisers participating in the action is unclear. | Getty U.S. sending special forces troops to Syria in ISIL fight

The United States will send special forces troops to northern Syria to advise and assist rebels battling the Islamic State, officials said Friday, the first time such forces would openly be deployed in the Arab nation and a sign of deepening U.S. involvement in a country where Russia and Iran also have a military presence.

The deployment immediately raised questions of whether the U.S., which opposes Syrian leader Bashar Assad, could ultimately find itself in a proxy war against Russia, which is backing him. But U.S. and Russian officials who were meeting in Vienna to search of a diplomatic solution to the Syrian crisis deflected that notion.


In any case, the deployment is the latest example of President Barack Obama's inability to untangle the United States from the violence in the Middle East and South Asia. The president promised to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But since taking office he has been forced to send troops, though often in an advisory role, to Iraq as it battles Islamic State jihadists and leave thousands in Afghanistan where the Taliban are resurgent. The U.S. also is offering intelligence and logistical support to its Saudi allies fighting Iran-backed rebels in Yemen and now finds itself going beyond just airstrikes in Syria, where the Islamic State has grabbed territory.

The exact number of special forces advisers participating in the action is unclear, but a senior administration official said the president has authorized no more than 50. White House press secretary Josh Earnest declined to get into specifics in a briefing with reporters, citing operational security.

"Specifically, we have enhanced our ability to partner with these forces advising them and helping to facilitate their activities; providing air support for their ground offensives; and directly equipping them so that they are more effective," the official said.

The administration has at the same time "scaled back" parts of its train-and-equip mission in Syria that involved taking forces out of the country, where the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, is just one of many factions battling the Assad regime. Earnest emphasized that the U.S. mission is focused on fighting ISIL, not taking on Assad's forces, and said the troops, while equipped to defend themselves, "will not be in a combat mission."

"We have always been clear that this would be a multi-year campaign, and that continues to be the case. ISIL is a determined enemy. And we will not defeat ISIL by military means alone," the senior administration official said. "That’s why we will continue to lead a 65-partner Coalition that is working to halt the flow of foreign fighters, constrict ISIL’s finances, stabilize liberated communities and counter ISIL’s messaging."

Obama has also authorized the deployment of A-10s and F-15s to Turkey's Incirlik air base as well as enhanced military assistance to Jordan and Lebanon in their anti-ISIL efforts. Further, the president has authorized consultation with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi and the Iraqi government on forming a special operations task force "to further enhance our ability to target ISIL leaders and networks."

A senior administration official told the Wall Street Journal separately that the U.S. has no "intention to pursue long-term, large-scale ground combat operations like those we’ve seen in the past in Iraq and Afghanistan."

In Vienna, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and counterparts from other nations with stakes in the Saudi civil war, including Iran, which backs Assad, and Saudi Arabia, which opposes him. The meeting ended with plans to meet again and an agreement to pursue a diplomatic effort that will include a cease-fire and some sort of political transition. There was no explicit call for Assad to exit, something Russia likely would not want to see.

Kerry and Lavrov dismissed the potential for a proxy war between their two countries, noting that they try to coordinate military operations. However, there have been numerous reports that Russian airstrikes have targeted anti-Assad groups backed by the CIA while paying little heed to the Islamic State jihadists.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) called a "more serious effort" against the terror group "long overdue." The committee will hold a hearing on U.S. strategy in the Middle East in the next few weeks.

"Absent a larger coherent strategy, however, these steps may prove to be too little too late," he said in a statement. "I do not see a strategy for success, rather it seems the administration is trying to avoid a disaster while the president runs out the clock."

Other lawmakers struck more anxious notes.

"Sending American special forces into Syria is a major shift in policy that puts the United States on a potentially dangerous downward slope into a civil war with no end in sight," warned Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). "Deploying troops into the middle of the Syrian civil war, regardless of their mission, risks drawing U.S. forces into combat missions and will inevitably increase pressure for the United States to enter the war against Assad."

Obama said in September 2013 that he would not send any troops to Syria, with respect to the revelation that Assad had used chemical weapons on his people in the country's civil war.

"I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria. I will not pursue an open-ended action like Iraq or Afghanistan," he assured the American people in a prime-time address from the White House, remarking that limited strikes did not amount to "pinpricks."

"Let me make something clear: The United States military doesn’t do pinpricks. Even a limited strike will send a message to Assad that no other nation can deliver," Obama said at the time. "I don't think we should remove another dictator with force — we learned from Iraq that doing so makes us responsible for all that comes next."

In the years since, U.S. special forces have carried out operations in Syria, however, including a raid that killed an Islamic State leader, and led to the capture of his wife and a trove of intelligence.

At the daily White House press briefing, Earnest pushed back against the notion that the latest decision marked a shift in strategy, saying that it is more of an intensification.

While the mission is not a combat one, he said, "there is no denying the amount of risk" that troops are assuming with their mission training, advising and assistance local Syrian forces.

"That is not an effort to downplay," Earnest said.

Sarah Wheaton contributed to this report.