‘US seeks special forces inside Syria’

The claim that the US military will train “moderate” Syrian militants only in “defensive” role is an excuse to set the stage for deployment of US Special Operations Forces inside Syria to lead the “offensive” against the Syrian government, an analyst says.

The Washington Post reports that the Syrian militants, to be recruited by the US military, will be trained to defend territory, rather than to seize it.

Senior US officials say they do not believe the “moderate” Syrian insurgents– being trained and armed by the Pentagon– will be able to recapture territory from ISIL (or ISIS) terrorists without the help of US combat teams.

US military commanders are reluctant to push “moderate” militants into battles with well-armed ISIL terrorists if they cannot summon close air support, the Post said. But they charge that air support would be impossible without American troops on the ground “to provide accurate targeting information on secure radio channels.”

“It gives the US an excuse to deploy its special forces inside parts of Syria that are far away from any fighting with ISIS based on the claim that these… ‘moderates’ are only engaged in ‘defensive’ activity,” Glen Ford, executive editor of Black Agenda Report, told Press TV on Thursday.

“And therefore you cannot charge that the United States is using its special forces inside Syria in offensive operations against the Syrian government, that they are simply helping ‘moderates’ defend themselves against possible ISIS attack,” he continued.

“And with this kind of crazy reasoning,” Ford said, Washington can justify having “US special forces in the suburbs of Damascus.”

“So all of this is designed to mask the ongoing US determination to use its own troops, and its own Air Force especially, to oust the Assad government,” he explained.

The Pentagon has announced that the US military will train as many as 5,000 militants a year to combat both the ISIL group and the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

US forces have been bombing ISIL positions in Syria since late September.

HRJ/HRJ