Pentagon Admits US Troop Levels in Syria More Than Double What They Previously Disclosed

Last updated on December 20th, 2024 at 08:28 am

The Department of Defense admitted on Dec. 19 that the U.S. troop presence in Syria is more than double what they had previously disclosed.

For months, the U.S. military has said around 900 U.S. troops remain deployed in Syria, amid the country’s ongoing multi-sided civil war. In a new press briefing, Pentagon spokesman and U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder put the number of U.S. troops active in the country at around 2,000.

“As you know, we have been briefing you regularly that there are approximately 900 US troops deployed to Syria,” Ryder began. “In light of the situation in Syria and the significant interest we recently learned that those numbers were higher.”

Ryder said he was disclosing the higher-than-previously-disclosed U.S. troop presence in Syria the same day he learned of the new higher figure.

“Given that there is significant interest in Syria, given what we have briefed previously, I wanted to make sure that you had the most up-to-date information,” he added.

The disclosure comes just over a week after Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad fled the country, as his government’s army collapsed in the face of an insurgent offensive that began on Nov. 27.

Ryder said the 900 troops the DOD has previously reported in Syria represent forces that are deployed for longer periods; between nine and 12 months. He said these additional troops are those who may move in and out of the country over a 30 to 90-day period.

The Pentagon spokesman said these additional troops were present in Syria even before Assad’s fall from power. He also said the U.S. military mission in Syria remains centered around countering the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

Ryder didn’t elaborate further on how the discrepancy emerged. He did say diplomatic and operational security concerns are at play when the DOD publicizes the number of troops it has stationed around the world.

This isn’t the first time the DOD has admitted to higher troop deployments than it had previously made public.

By the end of President Barack Obama’s presidency, the U.S. military had been reporting the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan had shrunk to around 8,400. By August of 2017, the DOD admitted the true number was actually around 11,000.

At the end of his first term in office, President-elect Donald Trump had ordered further U.S. troop drawdowns in Afghanistan, authorizing around 2,500 troops to remain in the country. By January of 2021, the DOD said it had completed the ordered troop drawdown; but by March of 2021, the New York Times reported around 1,000 more U.S. troops remained in the country than had been previously disclosed.

The New York Times attributed the discrepancy to a practice of assigning special operations troops to CIA operations, obfuscating their activities from greater public scrutiny.