Pentagon may send more U.S. troops to Syria

Tom Vanden Brook | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Pentagon may send more U.S. troops to Syria The Pentagon will consider deploying more special operations troops to fight Islamic State militants if its pilot project in Syria shows signs of progress, a senior Defense official told USA TODAY.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will consider deploying more special operations troops to fight Islamic State militants if its pilot project in Syria shows signs of progress, a senior Defense official told USA TODAY on Monday.

The Pentagon last month announced that 50 commandos would be sent to northern Syria to advise forces battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. Sending that initial force amounts to "breaking the seal" on inserting special operations forces in Syria and could lead to further deployments, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about planning. The Pentagon will not comment on whether those commandos have arrived in Syria.

The trigger for sending more special operations forces, the official said, is the ability of local forces to take ground from ISIL in Syria and hold it. Adding more forces on the ground in Syria would represent a significant deepening of the U.S. commitment to the counter-ISIL effort, potentially requiring additional forces to support them. There are about 3,400 American forces in Iraq.

The Pentagon's counter-ISIL strategy will be the focus of a hearing Tuesday before the House Armed Services Committee; Defense Secretary Ash Carter is scheduled to testify.

Rep. Mac Thornberry, the Texas Republican who chairs the committee, said in an interview that he would support a greater commitment of U.S. ground forces to Syria and Iraq, including spotters for airstrikes, if they are part of more robust strategy to confront the Islamic State.

"The issue is OK, What would it take to really degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS?" Thornberry said. "Send however many guys or assemble whatever coalition is necessary to accomplish that goal."

Thornberry dismissed the deployment of 50 commandos as a half measure that won't work.

"Fifty guys to be deployed is not going to turn the tide of this battle," he said.

Syria has been wracked by civil war that has killed 250,000 people and has seen the rise of ISIL, which claims the city of Raqqa as its de facto capital.

The ability of moderate local forces to seize territory from ISIL will likely be a key measure in the Pentagon's assessment. The Pentagon trumpeted the offensive by Kurdish peshmerga forces who retook the village of Sinjar in northern Iraq. That operation in mid-November was backed by U.S. airstrikes and benefited from American special operations forces who advised the Kurds from a safe distance.

The most likely spot for adding U.S. special operators would be in northeastern Syria, said Nicholas Heras, a Syrian expert at the Center for a New American Security. There, a "slowly growing, if shaky" coalition called the Syrian Democratic Forces includes Arabs and Kurds willing to fight ISIL and the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, he said.

"My assessment is that U.S. (special operations) forces are seeking to determine if local partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces coalition can clear-and-hold ISIS-controlled areas of eastern and northern Syria," Heras said.

Thornberry advocated an even more muscular military approach to confronting ISIL, including the establishment of no-fly zones inside Syria to protect refugees and those fighting ISIL. He called for more airstrikes, with limited restrictions on targets that can be hit, coordinated by U.S. spotters on the ground. He acknowledged that deploying those troops would require the commitment of additional forces, including search and rescue units.

Thornberry also called for a four-star commander to take charge of the mission. Currently, the counter-ISIL effort is commanded by a three-star Army officer, Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland. Thornberry said he favors sending more arms and equipment to Kurds and Sunni forces fighting ISIL.

"Until there are some military reverses on the battlefield to take the luster off of ISIS's shine, then they will continue to grow, continue to recruit and their ideology will spread," Thornberry said.

On Sunday, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called for the deployment of 20,000 U.S. troops to fight ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

In Iraq, the U.S. military is prepared to do more to assist Iraqi forces who have surrounded the provincial capital of Ramadi, the official said. But moving beyond what the Pentagon has already supplied — airstrikes, surveillance and equipping and training Iraqi troops — will require that Iraqi troops moved to retake the city, the official said. They have been slow to attack it after fleeing Ramadi without a fight in May.