Doesn’t count as boots on the ground.
Via Military Times
The U.S. force deploying to the Middle East later this year to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels may exceed 1,000, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday.
The mission will involve about 400 U.S. trainers — likely to include many Army Special Forces personnel — as well as additional “enablers” who will provide security and logistical support for the trainers, defense officials say.
“It could approach 1,000, it could even exceed it,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, in a briefing with reporters Friday.
The training will begin as early as this spring, and the American trainers and support troops will work out of sites in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, Kirby said.
No American troops have received deployment orders yet, but that could begin “in the next week or so,” Kirby said. Those troops will start arriving at the training sites in Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia in about four to six weeks, he said.
At least two other partner nations will send trainers for the mission, Kirby said. He declined to identify the countries.