Special ops forces headed to the ground in Syria

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said today the United States will soon deploy “less than 50” U.S. special operations personnel to the ground in Syria to train and advise anti-government rebels to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“These forces do not have a combat mission,” Earnest stressed, but acknowledged the forces would be exposed to danger and authorized to protect themselves as necessary.

However, “it will not be their responsibility to lead the charge to take a hill, but rather to offer advice and assistance to those local forces about the best way they can organize their efforts.”

Meanwhile, the Defense Department has scheduled a background briefing for 2 p.m.

Earnest said the deployment of the special operators represented the “intensification of elements of our strategy that have shown some promise.”

That strategy, Earnest said, still revolves around efforts to train indigenous forces to “take the fight to ISIL.”

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Ash Carter recently told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. military will be re-working its counter-ISIL mission to include increased special operations raids and airstrikes.

"We won't hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL, or conducting such missions directly, whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground," he told the committee on Tuesday.