US has twice as many troops in Syria than previously declared

The Pentagon claimed it had over 2,000 military personnel in Syria to target Islamist rebels before the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Washington has for years said it has some 900 military personnel in Syria as part of international efforts against Islamist groups, which seized swathes of territory there and in neighbouring Iraq before being defeated by local forces backed by a US-led air campaign (Read more at New Arab).