Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder admitted on Thursday that the U.S. has more than double the number of troops in Syria than the government originally claimed, as the country faces turmoil after terrorists overthrew its government.
The Pentagon has been claiming that the U.S. only has 900 troops on the ground in Syria, but Gen. Ryder admitted on Thursday that the Pentagon was wrong in its assessment and that, in reality, 2,000 U.S. troops are currently in Syria.
“We have been briefing you regularly that there are approximately 900 U.S. troops deployed to Syria, In light of the Situation in Syria and the significant interest, we recently learned that those numbers were higher, and so, asked to look into it, I learned that there are approximately 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria,” said Ryder.
Ryder justified the Department of Defense’s ignorance of its own troop deployments, explaining that, while there are 1,100 more troops there than they believed, only 900 are stationed there long-term, while the rest are there on temporary deployments.
The revelation of the Pentagon’s ignorance came just weeks after the Syrian government, led by dictator and former optometrist Bashar al-Assad, fell to former al-Qaeda and ISIS-affiliated terrorists.
The fall of Syria, an ally of Russia and Iran, could have global repercussions and potentially leave Russia without its only Mediterranean military base.
Since the fall of the Syrian government, the U.S. and Israel have conducted extensive airstrikes on the country, and Israel has annexed the demilitarized zone separating the Israeli controlled Golan Heights, annexed from Syria in 1981, and the rest of the country.
Currently, Turkey is building up its military presence on the Syrian border, suggesting preparations for a possible ground invasion of the country.
