Obama says special ops in Syria are just more of the same

In this Oct. 27, 2015, photo, President Barack Obama speaks at the 122nd International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Conference in Chicago. Even as Obama sent US troops back to Iraq and ordered the military to stay in Afghanistan, he insisted Syria would remain off limits for American ground forces. Now the president has crossed his own red line. AP

NEWARK, New Jersey — President Barack Obama says the US is not putting its troops on the front lines in Syria to fight the Islamic State, despite his decision to deploy special operations troops on the ground.

In his first comments since the deployment was announced, Obama says it’s merely an extension of what the US was already doing. He’s noting that the US had run special operations missions in Syria previously.

Obama says US troops won’t be fighting in Syria the way they did in the Iraq War with “battalions and occupations.” He says that doesn’t solve the problem.

Obama’s comments in an interview with NBC News come three days after the White House announced plans to send up to 50 special operations troops to assist Kurdish and Arab forces in northern Syria.

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