Pentagon chief announces 200 more US troops for Syria drive

DUBAI — Washington will send another 200 troops to Syria to help an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters seize Daesh (the so-called IS) bastion of Raqa, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Saturday. They will join 300 US special forces troops already deployed in support of the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance in the drive on the militant stronghold it launched on Nov. 5. The operation coincides with a vast US-backed offensive to retake Iraq’s second city of Mosul from the militants, forming a twin-pronged campaign intended to deliver a knockout blow to the “caliphate” they declared across Iraq and Syria in 2014. The two cities are the last major urban centers under Daesh control after the militants suffered a string of territorial losses in both countries over the past year. “I can tell you today that the United States will deploy approximately 200 additional US forces in Syria,” the Pentagon chief told Gulf policymakers in Manama. He told the Manama Dialogue security forum that the troop reinforcements will include bomb disposal experts and trainers as well as special forces personnel. — AFP