Pentagon Admits Massive Surge of US Troops in Syria

By Staff, Agencies

The US has revealed that it has more than doubled its military presence in Syria, with a Pentagon spokesman saying that he “just recently learned” there were in fact roughly 2,000 American forces deployed in the country, rather than 900 troops as previously reported.

For years, the Pentagon had maintained that “about 900” US troops were stationed in the country, and officials continued to repeat this figure even after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad on December 8.

However, during a press conference on Thursday, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said that “we recently learned that those numbers [are] higher.”

“Given the difference in what we’ve been briefing and what the actual number is, I just felt that it was important to get you that information,” Ryder said, citing diplomatic and operational security sensitivities as part of the reason for the delay in disclosure.

The Pentagon spokesman explained that the additional troops had been in Syria “at a minimum, months” on a rotational basis, which has been “going on for a while.”

He insisted that the increase was not related to the recent events and that the timing was merely a coincidence.

“As I understand it and as it was explained to me, these additional forces are considered temporary rotational forces that deploy to meet shifting mission requirements, whereas the core 900 deployers are on longer-term deployments,” Ryder said.

In 2019, President Donald Trump ordered all US troops to withdraw, but Pentagon officials pushed back, and he backtracked later that year, saying: “We’re keeping the oil… We left troops behind only for the oil.”