More U.S. troops in Syria than disclosed

T TV Saturday 25/November/2017 13:10 PM
By: Times News Service

The Pentagon is likely to announce soon that there are about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, four times the number previously disclosed, according to two U.S. officials.
The number of U.S. troops in Syria is about 2,000, four times the number previously disclosed.
That's according to two U.S. officials who told Reuters Friday (November 24) the Pentagon is likely to come clean about the discrepancy.
It stems from an accounting system called the Force Management Level, introduced by the Obama administration to control the military.
But the numbers don't always reflect what's going on on the ground as commanders often find ways to work around the limits.
The Syrian Force Management Level is officially at 503. Most U.S. troops in Syria work to train and advise the Syrian Democratic Forces group of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting IS in the north of the country.
It's not clear how long the actual number in Syria has been at over 2,000. It's not just Syria.
Officials have privately acknowledged in the past that the real number for Iraq is also more than force management level number of 5262.