DOD acknowledges additional U.S. troops in Syria

The Defense Department announced today there are 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, after last month reporting there were only 500.

Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said the new number was being provided in the interests of transparency, but stressed the figure was approximate so as to not provide information to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

"We will be in Syria as long as it takes to make sure that ISIS is not afforded the ability to reestablish safe havens and plan and conduct attacks,” he said of the Trump administration's "conditions-based strategy."

Manning also said there were approximately 5,200 U.S. troops in Iraq.