Obama administration officials says up to 250 US military personnel headed to Syria

AhlulBayt News Agency - US President Barack Obama will send an additional 250 military personnel to Syria in pretext to help local forces fighting the the so-called Islamic State group, increasing to 300 the number of U.S. forces battling extremists in the war-torn country, administration officials confirmed Sunday.

Obama "tomorrow will announce that he has authorized up to 250 additional forces deploying to Syria," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The president has authorized a series of steps to increase support for our partners in the region, including Iraqi security forces as well as local Syrian forces who are taking the fight to ISIL," said the official, referring to Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government. They now control large parts of Iraq and Syria.

This would bring to 300 the total number of American troops in Syria. The White House says its ground troops will help in the fight against ISIS terrorists.

Since March 2011, the United States and its regional allies, in particular Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, have been conducting a proxy war against Syria.

The years-long conflict has left more than 470,000 Syrians dead and half of the country’s population of about 23 million displaced within or beyond the Arab country’s borders.

In September 2014, the US and some of its allies started conducting airstrikes inside Syria against ISIS terrorists, many of whom were initially trained by the CIA to fight against the Syrian government. However, observers say the attacks did little damage to the terrorists; rather, they targeted the country’s infrastructure.

Washington has also deployed dozens of special forces to eastern Syria in what it claims is an effort to shore up local militant groups against ISIS.

In September of last year, Russia launched its own air offensive against the terrorists who were still wreaking havoc in Syria. The Russian campaign, analysts say, has broken the backbone of ISIL and other militants, and has provided the government of President Bashar al-Assad an opportunity to defeat the foreign-sponsored terrorist onslaught.

In recent months, the Syrian army, backed by the Russian air power, has been making major gains against Takfiri groups, recapturing several strategic areas from their grip, particularly in the strategic northern province of Aleppo.

A temporary truce agreement engineered by Russia and the United States, which came into force across Syria on February 27, has been holding despite minor reports of violations by the warring sides.

Obama on Sunday called on to "reinstate" the faltering ceasefire.

"I spoke to (Russian) President Vladimir Putin early last week to try to make sure that we could reinstate the cessation of hostilities," Obama told a news conference in Germany.



/129