Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder admitted during a press briefing on Thursday that the number of U.S. troops in Syria is much higher than the Biden-Harris administration previously reported. While the Pentagon has reported for months that roughly 900 U.S. troops were deployed in Syria, approximately 2,000 U.S. troops have actually been deployed.
“We have been briefing you regularly that there are approximately 900 U.S. troops deployed to Syria,” Ryder told reporters on Thursday. “In light of the situation in Syria and the significant interest, we recently learned that those numbers were higher.”
After looking into the number of troops deployed in Syria, Ryder said he learned that there are roughly 2,000 U.S. troops currently deployed in Syria.
“As I understand it and as it was explained to me, these additional forces are considered temporary rotational forces that deploy to meet shifting mission requirements, whereas the core 900 deployers are on longer term deployments,” Ryder said. “As you know, for many of our deployments, numbers will fluctuate from time to time, but given that this number is significantly higher than what we’ve been briefing, I wanted to let you know as soon as I found out this information.”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 19, 2024
Biden Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder says he "recently learned" there are actually 2,000+ U.S. troops deployed in Syria — far more than the 900 they had previously announced. pic.twitter.com/MKlqO2ZlqS
“I will say that there are diplomatic and operational security considerations oftentimes with our deployments and some of those numbers, and it’s certainly the case here,” Ryder added. “But again, 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.”
Ryder explained that the additional U.S. troops were deployed in Syria prior to the recent downfall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “My understanding is it’s been for a while, so clearly, before the fall of the Assad regime,” he said.
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Following the Pentagon’s acknowledgment that the Biden-Harris administration has been incorrectly reporting the number of troops deployed in Syria, Jennifer Griffin, Fox News’s Pentagon correspondent, pointed out that the number was “more than double the number of troops” that reporters have been told for “quite some time. “
“So, are we talking about this has been going on for months? For Years?” Griffin asked. “Is this something that just happened this summer? We need a time frame.”
In response, Ryder said, “Yeah, I think it would probably be fair to say at a minimum, months. I’ll go back and look, but, yeah, it’s been going on for a while.”
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