Hillary Clinton 'sees merit' in sending US special forces to Syria
Leading US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has supported President Barack Obama's decision to authorize the use of Special Operations troops in Syria.
Clinton "sees merit in the targeted use of special operations personnel to support our partners in the fight against ISIS [ISIL], including in Syria," according to a statement obtained by CNN on Saturday from campaign spokesman Nick Merrill.
"Of course she opposes the US getting into a ground war in the Middle East," Merrill said. "And she strongly supports ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, address the suffering, and bring all of Syria's communities together to confront ISIS."
On Friday, the White House announced that the United States is sending Special Operations forces to Syria to "assist" militants fighting against the government and the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group , in an apparent breach of Obama's promise not to put US “boots on the ground" there.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest claimed that Obama was not backtracking on his promise not to put boots on the ground in Syria.
"The President does expect that they can have an impact in intensifying our strategy for building the capacity of local forces inside of Syria for taking the fight on the ground to ISIL in their own country," Earnest said.
"That has been the core element of the military component of our strategy from the beginning: building the capacity of local forces on the ground,” he added.
On Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that US officials had been discussing deploying Special Forces troops in Syria "for months."
"The president has been determined that we are going to increase our efforts against Daesh," Kerry said on Friday in Vienna, where he held talks with his Russian and Iranian counterparts on the Syrian crisis.
On Saturday, Kerry said US troops deployed to Syria will only try to combat Daesh terrorists and will not become involved in the years-long deadly conflict.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The crisis has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people so far and displaced millions of others.
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