WASHINGTON: The US Department of Defence (DOD) said in a new report that the US has almost 26,000 troops deployed in total in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
The US has 15,298 troops in Afghanistan, 8,892 in Iraq and 1,720 in Syria, according to the report.
The numbers were released to the public last week as part of the DOD’s quarterly count of active duty, reserve, guard and civilian personnel assigned by country by the Defence Manpower Data Centre.
However, the report has not included special operations forces or temporary personnel rotating into or out of the country in that official figure, so the actual number could be even higher.
US Defence Secretary James Mattis pledged to bring more transparency to the actual number of forces on the ground as he assumed leadership of the Pentagon earlier this year under President Donald Trump.
DOD’s previous official response to queries about the number of forces had been to provide the “force management level” – a cap set by the previous administration under former President Barack Obama. Using that figure, the Pentagon had only previously said there were 5,262 troops in Iraq.
However, the Defence Manpower Data Centre, which tracks actual numbers and not policy-driven force management levels, was reporting that there were 6,812 US forces in Iraq in December 2016, the last report completed under former Barack Obama’s administration.
The actual number of forces in Syria is also substantially higher than the previously acknowledged figure, according to the database. The Pentagon had previously provided the force management level number – 503 troops – when queried. The actual number is 1,720 plus three DOD civilians, according to the database.
Afghanistan also has many more US troops on the ground than previously acknowledged, according to the database. As of September 30, there were 15,298 US military forces and 1,202 DOD civilians, for a total reported US footprint in Afghanistan of 16,500.
