How the mission in Syria evolved and may expand
WASHINGTON — The U.S. campaign against the Islamic State in Syria has evolved in the past couple years from airstrikes and training of local forces to an increasingly complicated mission, which now includes hundreds of American troops on the ground and coordination with a hodgepodge of allies, partners and even rivals engaged in the fight.
Under President Donald Trump, the United States’ role is likely to expand further.
Here is a look at how the U.S. mission has evolved, how it stands today and challenges facing the Trump administration it contemplates speeding up the fight.
How it began
Former President Barack Obama ordered the start of a U.S.-led air campaign against IS in Syria in September 2014, weeks after a parallel bombing effort began in neighboring Iraq.
IS militants that year had swept across Syria’s border into northern and western Iraq, capturing the city of Mosul and declaring an Islamic caliphate. Its rapid progress created alarm in Washington and around the world about the prospect of Baghdad potentially falling.
Almost 1,000 days later, the Pentagon says it has spent $11.5 billion. That includes money for training and advising local forces.
Obama initially ruled out putting U.S. ground troops in Syria, but sent small numbers of military advisers to Iraq to develop a plan for retraining an Iraqi army that had all but collapsed. There are now well more than 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, largely focused on helping the government recapture Mosul.
The current mission
The mission in Syria is being carried out by U.S. special operations troops as well as several hundred conventional forces such as a Marine artillery unit.
The Americans aren’t leading the fight against IS but are involved in an increasing number of ways. The Marine artillery is a recent addition, for example, and about two weeks ago a few dozen Army Rangers began acting as a “deterrence and reassurance” force on the outskirts of the city of Manbij. The Rangers are showing the U.S. flag in hopes of dissuading Turkish, Russian, Syrian and U.S.-based opposition forces from fighting each other, deliberately or accidentally.
The air war continues. The U.S. is conducting strikes on IS daily from bases in Jordan, Turkey and elsewhere in the region.
Military commanders, frustrated by what they considered micromanagement under the previous administration, have argued for greater freedom to make daily decisions on how to fight the enemy. And Trump says the threat must be extinguished quickly.
Still, America is having some success at the moment. U.S.-trained Iraqi forces have pushed IS to the brink of a major loss in Mosul, following the group’s defeats in the western Iraqi cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.