U.S. to send small number of special forces to Syria

The White House has approved deploying up to 50 special forces to northern Syria to help fighters combat the Islamic State group, a spokesman said Friday.

It marks the first sustained U.S. military presence in the war-torn country and a stepped up role supporting the mainstream opposition.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest insisted the development wasn’t a break from President Barack Obama’s no “boots on the ground” pledge, but merely a way to “intensify” existing efforts to help boost the local fighters’ campaign against the Islamic State militants.

“It will not be their primary responsibility to lead the charge up the hill,” but they might be in the vicinity, he said.

The military personnel will provide training, advice and assistance to the moderate opposition forces that were successful in driving Islamic State militants out of Kobani, Syria, with U.S. help a year ago.

And now, the local forces are outside of the self-proclaimed Islamic State capital, Raqqa, in northern Syria, said Earnest.

When asked if the U.S. personnel would be at risk from Russian airstrikes, Earnest said the Russians were operating in different areas than the U.S. was planning to be to help fight the Islamic State militants.

He added that he couldn’t say if more U.S. forces would be deployed later.

The development came as officials from more than a dozen countries, including the U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and for the first time Iran, met in Vienna to talk about the conflict in Syria now in its fifth year.

The officials are considering a plan including a ceasefire for several months and the formation of a transition government that involves embattled President Bashar Assad and members of the opposition, reported the Associated Press.

It would be a change in the U.S. stance that Assad must immediately leave office.

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