US may deploy more troops to Syria: US Commander

The top US commander for the Middle East says more American troops may be needed in Syria to step up the so-called campaign against the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in the war-torn country.

General Joseph L. Votel, the head of the US Central Command, made the announcement on Wednesday while speaking to reporters accompanying him on a trip to the Middle East region.

Asked by CBS News if further US troops would be dispatched to Syria, Votel said, “Perhaps,” stressing that he was "very concerned about maintaining momentum."

The local US-backed forces in Syria “don’t have as good mobility, they don’t have as much firepower, so we have to be prepared to fill in some of those gaps for them… and we take the burden on ourselves for that aspect of the fight,” he added.

Washington has currently about 500 Special Operations troops in Syria. However, their activities have been limited to what the Pentagon describes as training and assisting Kurdish forces in their battle against Daesh and other terrorist groups.

The US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) are said to be engaged in operations to drive terrorists from Raqqah, the de facto capital of Daesh in Syria. They dominate the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a multi-ethnic anti-Damascus alliance.

SS