MANAMA, Bahrain — The United States is sending 200 additional troops to Syria, nearly doubling the Pentagon’s presence there, to help thousands of Kurdish and Arab fighters massing for an assault on the Islamic State’s stronghold of Raqqa, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Saturday.
Carter said the reinforcements would include US commandos and bomb-squad specialists. They will join the estimated 300 Special Operations forces already working in eastern Syria to recruit, train, and advise local Syrian militias to combat the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
“This latest commitment of additional forces within Syria is another important step in enabling our partners to deal ISIL a lasting defeat,’’ Carter told a security conference in Manama.
Carter said the deployment of more US troops to Syria was approved by President Obama in recent days.
It comes amid questions in the Middle East and in Washington about the level of support President-elect Donald Trump will maintain for rebel groups in Syria combating the Islamic State and others fighting the government of President Bashar Assad.
Trump has expressed a desire to work with Russia and the Syrian government to defeat the Islamic State, rejecting the rebels by saying that “we have no idea who these people are.’’
The battle for Raqqa — the de facto capital of the extremist group’s self-declared caliphate — is entering a critical phase as a coalition of 45,000 fighters, including more than 13,000 Arabs, has moved within 15 miles of the city. Their initial goal is to circle the city and largely cut off the resupply of arms, supplies, and fighters, US commanders say.
In the last month, the US-led air campaign has carried out nearly 300 airstrikes around Raqqa, including attacks last week that destroyed 188 oil tanker trucks, the largest strike of its kind in the two-year effort.
Sending more US commandos to Syria will allow the Pentagon to train more Arab volunteers in more places in a wider array of skills, US officials said Saturday.
Most of the Arab fighters are recently recruited residents who are not particularly well trained or equipped but are needed to carry out the bulk of the fighting in Raqqa, a Sunni Arab city. The Pentagon plans to give these local forces more arms and ammunition.
“By combining our capabilities with those of our local partners, we’ve been squeezing ISIS by applying simultaneous pressure from all sides,’’ Carter said.
The military advance is complicated by the predominant role played by Kurdish militia members, who make up a majority of the 45,000 fighters and are the most effective US partner against the Islamic State in Syria. But the Kurdish militia fighters are viewed by Turkey — a pivotal US ally — as a terrorist threat.
Turkey regards the Syrian Kurdish fighters, known collectively as the YPG, as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Kurdish rebel group that has sought autonomy from Turkey since the 1980s. Ankara has demanded that the YPG not take part in the fight to retake Raqqa.
Turkish forces in recent months have swept across the border into Syria to attack Islamic State strongholds, an offensive the Pentagon has applauded. But the Turkish advance has also served to blunt Kurdish fighters’ efforts to carve out a contiguous swath of territory inside Syria stretching to the Iraqi border.
As Turkish and Kurdish forces repeatedly clashed, US officials and commanders intervened to curtail the fighting. US officials hope the two sides focus on fighting the Islamic State in Raqqa, not each other.
To that end, General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has met twice in the last month with his Turkish counterpart, General Hulusi Akar, to consult on battle plans for Raqqa.
