Obama to send 250 additional military personnel to Syria
HANNOVER, Germany — President Obama has approved sending another 250 U.S. military personnel to Syria to help opposition forces battle the Islamic State, an administration official confirmed Sunday.
Obama is expected to make the announcement Monday in a speech here as he completes a week-long foreign trip.
The U.S. personnel will not be engaged in direct combat but will advise the units and can help coordinate airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, the official said.
The 250 would join 50 U.S. advisers the White House had earlier authorized for Syria, where they are helping a patchwork of Kurdish and Arab fighters battling the Islamic State in northeastern Syria. There is no timeline yet for deploying the new forces.
The administration official asked not to be named because the announcement has not yet been made. The information was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The additional personnel for Syria follows last week's announcement to send another 217 military personnel to Iraq, where U.S. forces are training and advising Iraqi forces.
"The issue for us is identifying yet more ways to accelerate the campaign" against the Islamic State, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said recently.
At a news conference here Sunday, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama reiterated his reluctance to create a "safe zone" inside Syria for the thousands of people fleeing the 5-year-old conflict because it would require a large military commitment and ground troops.
“Sadly, it is very difficult to see how it would operate short of us essentially being willing to militarily take over a chunk of that country,” he said.
He pointed out his concern about a safe zone is practical, not ideological, because it would require ground troops and need to be monitored to determine who would be allowed to enter or leave the zone.
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Merkel has previously expressed approval of the idea of a safe zone. She said Sunday that she believes these zones could be carved out without foreign military intervention, and the concept should be part of the peace negotiations in Geneva.
"Perhaps because she once lived behind a wall herself, Angela understands the aspirations of those who are denied their freedom and seek a better life," he said.
Merkel spent her youth in East Germany, then part of the Communist bloc.
Obama again said he is concerned about the recent increase in fighting in Syria, which also threatens to halt the peace talks in Geneva. Airstrikes and shelling pounded the Syrian city of Aleppo for a third straight day on Sunday, killing at least two dozen people, Reuters reported.
The indirect peace talks being brokered by the United Nations envoy have been teetering amid the rising violence in Syria. A partial cease-fire, or cessation of hostilities, went into effect Feb. 27.
Syrian opposition forces have made recent headway in pushing Islamic State militants out of some key cities and towns in northeast Syria and have moved closer to Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital.
Kurdish forces have so far bore the brunt of the fighting against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. The United States and its allies have made efforts to build a broader ground force that includes more Sunni Arab fighters, who can expand beyond Kurdish enclaves.
Michaels reported from Purcellville, Va.