WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Trump has allowed Secretary of Defense James Mattis to determine the number of troops deployed to fight Daesh terror group (banned in Russia), Department of Defense chief spokesperson Dana White said.
"The President has delegated authority to the secretary of defense to determine force management levels (FML) for Iraq and Syria. No change to current authorized force levels has been made," White said on Wednesday in a statement to BuzzFeed News.
The spokeswoman underscored that the US mission in Iraq and Syria will remain "to work by, with and through local forces."
On April 26, the defense secretary drafted a memo asking to conduct a review of the current maximum level of forces deployed to the countries.
At present, the established troops cap for Iraq is 5,262.
In March, Defense Department spokesperson Capt. Jeff Davis said the US military can bring in additional troops to Syria for short periods of time without exceeding the existing formal cap of some 500 servicemen on the ground.
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