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 The planned deployment, along with the U.S. decision this week to
include Iran in diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, represents
the biggest change in the United States' Syria policy since it began
a bombing campaign against Islamic State targets there in September
2014.
Announcing the measure on Friday, the White House said the troops
would be on a mission to "train, advise and assist" and would number
fewer than 50. Spokesman Josh Earnest declined to give details about
their exact role.
The decision by Obama, deeply averse to committing troops to
unpopular wars in the Middle East, would mark the first sustained
U.S. troop presence in Syria and raise the risk of American
casualties, although U.S. officials stressed the forces were not
meant to engage in front-line combat.
"This is a dangerous place on the globe and they are at risk, and
there's no denying that," said Earnest, who repeatedly rejected the
idea that the deployment would constitute a ground combat mission,
which Obama has long rejected as a solution in Syria.
 Earnest said the new mission in Syria was open ended and did not
rule out the possibility of sending additional special forces troops
into Iraq. Obama spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on
Friday about the fight against Islamic State, Earnest said.
The Obama administration is under pressure to ramp up America's
effort against Islamic State, particularly after the militant group
captured the Iraqi city of Ramadi in May and following the failure
of a U.S. military program to train and arm thousands of Syrian
rebels.
The planned deployment adds to an increasingly volatile conflict in
Syria, where Russia and Iran have increased up their military
support for President Bashar al-Assad's fight against rebels in the
four-and-a-half year civil war.
Russia said when it began air strikes last month that it would also
target the Islamic State militant group, but its planes have hit
other rebel groups opposed to Assad, including groups backed by
Washington.
The decision to send U.S. special forces to Syria will put U.S.
forces "in harm's way," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on
Friday, adding he did not rule out the possibility of further
special forces deployments to Syria.
This month a U.S. soldier was killed in Iraq participating in a
Kurdish-led mission to rescue Islamic State hostages.
"INTENSIFIED COOPERATION" WITH IRAQ
Some in Congress applauded the planned deployment, although
Republican critics described it as overdue and unlikely to change
the course of the war. Senator John McCain, who has long assailed
Obama's foreign policy, said it amounted to "grudging
incrementalism" that was insufficient to resolve the conlict.
 Many Republicans, including leading candidates in the 2016
presidential race, have called for a more interventionist Middle
East policy, slamming Obama for his nuclear deal with Iran and for
not being tougher on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The introduction of U.S. forces on the ground marks a shift after
more than a year of limiting the Syria mission to air strikes
against Islamic State. Before last year, Obama had ruled out an
American presence on the ground in Syria. Over the past year,
however, he has emphasized that he would not send U.S. "combat"
troops there.
The new U.S. strategy against Islamic State in Syria will be
accompanied by a new special operations force in Erbil in northern
Iraq, "intensified" cooperation with Iraqis in retaking the city of
Ramadi and expanded security assistance to Jordan and Lebanon, a
senior congressional source said.
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The forces in Syria would be stationed in rebel-held territory,
coordinate air drops to rebels and resupplying those forces as they
move toward Raqqa, which is in the north of the country and is the
declared capital of Islamic State, U.S. officials told Reuters. They
could also help coordinate air strikes from the ground, the
officials said.
To further counter Islamic State, Obama has also authorized
deploying A-10s and F-15 aircraft to Incirlik air
base in Turkey.
The United States had already deployed about a dozen A-10 aircraft
to Incirlik in the past couple of weeks and expects to send an
additional dozen or so F-15 fighter jets there, as part of an effort
to "thicken" air operations in northern Syria, a senior U.S. defense
official said.
"That means we want a greater density of planes striking, a greater
density of intelligence assets developing targets," the official
said.
TRYING TO STRENGTHEN REBELS
Friday's move reflects a wider strategy of strengthening rebels
Washington sees as moderate even as it intensifies its efforts to
find a diplomatic solution to end to the Syrian civil war in which
at least 200,000 people have died.
The news came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting at
Syrian peace talks in Vienna. He said that the timing of the
announcement was a coincidence and that peace moves must continue.
The talks include the foreign ministers of Russia and Iran, which
support Assad, and nations such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which
are adamantly opposed to his remaining in power after a civil war
that has driven millions abroad as refugees and displaced millions
more inside the country.
The United States is helping thousands of Syrian rebel fighters as
they try to encircle Raqqa and cut that city off from Iraq's Mosul,
which the group also controls, U.S. officials say.
The most effective U.S. allies in northern Syria are Kurdish forces,
who captured a swathe of territory from Islamic State along the
border with Turkey over the past year with the aid of U.S. air
strikes. But Washington has been cautious about publicly committing
to help the Syrian Kurds, who are mistrusted by U.S. NATO ally
Turkey.
The senior U.S. defense official said Washington had no intention
for now of airdropping weapons to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.
"I don't rule it out in the future but...nothing would be done
without the close coordination of the government of Turkey," the
official said.
Although the U.S. forces would help local Syrian fighters better
communicate targets for U.S. airstrikes, the U.S. forces themselves
were not going to call in the strikes, the official said.
(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards, Roberta Rampton, Mark
Hosenball and Yeganeh Torbati; Writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing
by Frances Kerry and Mary Milliken)
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