US Sec. of Defense says US to add 200 military personnel to Syria anti-ISIS campaign
In addition to the 300 US troops currently in Syria, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announces that 200 military personnel will be sent to Syria in an attempt to drive ISIS out of the city of Raqqa; 'the sooner we crush both the fact and the idea of an Islamic state based on ISIL's barbaric ideology, the safer we'll all be,' says Carter while referring to ISIS.
Speaking in Bahrain at the Manama Dialogue conference on Middle East security, Carter said the 200, including special forces trainers, advisers and explosive ordnance disposal teams, would join 300 US special force troops already in Syria.
"These uniquely skilled operators will join the 300 US special operations forces already in Syria, to continue organizing, training, equipping, and otherwise enabling capable, motivated, local forces to take the fight to ISIL," he said in a speech, referring to international terrorism organization ISIS, also known as the Islamic State.
The first goal of a coalition opposed to the militants was to "destroy the ISIL cancer's parent tumor in Iraq and Syria, because the sooner we crush both the fact and the idea of an Islamic state based on ISIL's barbaric ideology, the safer we'll all be", he said.
He added that Russia, President Bashar al-Assad's top foreign military backer, had "only inflamed the civil war and prolonged suffering of the Syrian people."
Syria's civil war pits Assad, backed by Iran, Russia and some Shi'ite militias, against mostly Sunni Arab rebels backed by Turkey, Gulf monarchies and the United States. A secondary conflict puts all of them at war with ISIS, an effort that coincides withthe West's push against the group in Iraq.
The Iraqi city of Mosul and the smaller Syrian city of Raqqa are the two pillars of ISIS's self-declared caliphate, and recapturing them would be a pivotal defeat for the ultra-hardline Sunni jihadists.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry and other leading diplomats are trying to find solutions for Syria's desperate opposition, as Syrian government forces squeeze rebels out of Aleppo after a devastating blitz.
With tens of thousands of civilians fleeing, Kerry said he is working to ensure their safety and to save Aleppo "from being absolutely, completely destroyed."
Kerry is meeting in Paris on Saturday with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, European and Arab diplomats and members of Syria's opposition.
US and Russian military experts and diplomats are to meet in Geneva on Saturday to work out details of the rebels' exit from eastern Aleppo.
Backed by Russia and other allies, Syrian forces have taken control of nearly all of the rebel enclave in eastern Aleppo.
