Obama authorizes U.S. special forces to enter Syria

Show Caption Hide Caption U.S. special operations forces headed to Syria President Obama has authorized the deployment of "less than 50" special operations forces to Syria where they will work with local rebels fighting the Islamic State.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has authorized the deployment of U.S. military advisers into Syria in a significant expansion of the U.S. fight against the Islamic State, the White House said Friday.

President Obama approved a contingent of no more than 50 special operations forces to enter northern Syria where they will work with local rebels fighting the Islamic State.

The Islamic State has maintained a grip on large swaths of Iraq and Syria despite more than a year of bombing by the U.S.-led coalition, and the move is is an effort to invigorate ground operations. The United States is also in talks with Iraq about bolstering special operations forces in that country.

The deployment of advisers to Syria is open-ended, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, and future moves will be based on a constant assessment. "This is not a short-term proposition," he said.

Administration officials insist that the move does not alter the basic strategy against the Islamic State, which is to support local forces in the fight against the Islamic State and avoid the use of conventional American ground troops.

Obama has been mindful of "mission creep," the steady escalation of U.S. involvement that would draw America deeper into a Middle East war.

"I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria — I will not pursue an open-ended action like Iraq or Afghanistan," Obama said in 2013.

Dispatching U.S. Special Operations advisers is not the same as conventional military forces, but it heightens the risk for American troops and places them closer to combat. A U.S. soldier, Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, died last week while supporting a Kurdish raid that successfully freed 70 prisoners from an Islamic State prison in Iraq.

"They will not be in a combat mission," Earnest said.

The 50 special operators are expected to arrive in Syria within weeks, said a senior Defense official speaking on condition of anonymity. The official is not authorized to release details of the plan publicly. They will be in an advisory role only and not join troops in battle. They are expected to remain in Syria for up to two months at a time.

The new American advisers will be able to help in opening a new front in Syria. The Pentagon recently identified Arab fighters who have been battling the Islamic State around Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria. The U.S. military has airdropped 50 tons of ammunition to the Arab coalition, which numbers about 5,000 fighters, in the hopes they can put pressure directly on the Islamic State stronghold.

The Pentagon said the advisers will help Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen who are fighting the Islamic State.

Kurdish forces, backed by coalition airstrikes, have been successful in defeating Islamic State militants in some parts of northern Syria. But the Kurds have been largely limited to their homelands in Syria.

There are discussions with U.S. allies about deploying commandos from their countries to Syria, the defense official said. The new strategy also calls for additional military aid to Jordan and Lebanon.

The U.S. commandos will advise the fighters on tactics, planning and logistics, the defense official said. They'll also determine if those forces should be furnished with US-supplied small arms. All the U.S commandos will be coming from bases in the United States, the official said.

The revamped strategy also includes potentially bolstering the U.S. special operations forces in Iraq, though it will require approval from the Iraqi government. President Obama spoke Friday with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Iraq's security forces have struggled to recapture Ramadi, an influential Sunni city in western Iraq which was seized by militants in May. Islamic State militants also control Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.

The U.S. Air Force may soon deploy about a dozen F-15 warplanes to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to quicken the pace of airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria, the defense official said. There are 12 A-10 ground attack planes there now. The aircraft are effective in providing close support to ground troops.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized the decision. “Unfortunately, this limited action is yet another insufficient step in the Obama Administration’s policy of gradual escalation," he said in a statement.

Michael Knights, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the administration has been feeling pressure from some of its allies in the region to speed up the pace of operations against the Islamic State.

"The White House's previous attitude is this is a three- or four-year conflict," Knights said. "Everybody else is saying, 'We're in a hurry.'"