U.S. to Send More Diplomats and Personnel to Syria
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Effort to stabilize area once controlled by Islamic State will include contractors and military component .
The Trump administration plans to expand the number of U.S. diplomats and contractors in eastern Syria to help stabilize the once Islamic State-controlled part of the country, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday.
Mr. Mattis didn’t provide any details about how many U.S. personnel would be sent or when, but he cited two Syrian cities that would receive U.S. help—Tabqa and Raqqa, the de facto Islamic State capital until it fell out of its control this year.
“What we will be doing is shifting from what I would call an offensive, terrain-seizing approach to a stabilizing” one, Mr. Mattis said Friday in a briefing with reporters at the Pentagon. “You will see more U.S. diplomats on the ground, for example.”
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