US could send Special Forces to find Syrian terror targets
AMERICA is preparing to boost its Special Forces presence in Syria to help warplanes identify high-value jihadist targets.
The Pentagon is looking to deploy Green Berets or other special troops inside the country in a significant ramping up of the war against Islamic State.
The move would be partly in response to Russia’s military intervention in the region – which critics have claimed left the US looking ineffectual.
As well as helping to identify jihadist targets on the frontline, these new ‘boots on the ground’ would join British Special Forces to seek out vital information on Russian troops.
The teams of 30 to 50 would embed with Syrian rebel units and Kurdish troops north of the IS de facto capital Raqqa.
US President Barack Obama is understood to have been presented with a series of options as part of the Pentagon’s attempts to reboot America’s strategy towards the terror group.
They include temporarily deploying some US forces to advise moderate Syrian opposition fighters, and sending a small number
‘We won’t hold back’
of Apache attack helicopters – with US troops to operate them – to Iraq.
Steps could also be taken to bolster other Iraqi capabilities needed to claw back territory from IS.
American officials said any deployment would be narrowly tailored. One added that proposals are still in a conceptual stage – meaning that even if any were approved in the coming days, a US military deployment could still be weeks or months away.
The Pentagon and White House declined to comment on the options.
However Defence Secretary Ash Carter signalled his intent to step up the US military’s activity in Iraq and Syria just days after US forces participated in a raid to rescue hostages held in Iraq by IS – also know as ISIL. A US Delta Force soldier was killed in the assault on a militant compound.
Mr Carter told a Senate hearing on Tuesday: ‘We won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL or conducting such missions directly, whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground.’
Marine Corp General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate hearing he would consider recommending putting more US forces with Iraqi troops if it improved chances of defeating the militants.