WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Rhodes added that "the norm for these operators is not going to be going out on raids — that is not their mission."
"The purpose of this mission [in Syria], just like the purpose of our presence in Iraq, is not to have a constant raid capacity in the country. It is to facilitate the operations of these other partners," Rhodes said at a Defense One conference in Washington, DC.
On Friday, the White House announced it would deploy up to 50 special forces operators in Syria to provide additional train-and-assist capacity to US partners to fight the Islamic State terrorist group.
The decision came after the October 22 confirmation of a US raid to free 70 hostages from an Islamic State compound in northern Iraq. The October 22 operation also resulted in the first US combat casualty in the war against Islamic State.
Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter noted after the successful hostage rescue operation that the United States would be conducting more raids in the future.
