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Coordination, make sure they get ammunition drops, make sure they get the logistics, help them gather intelligence. the u.s. will also be gathering its own intelligence. this will give the u.s. eyes and ears on the ground for the first time in syria on a regular basis to begin to gather more information about what is happening on the ground. this will be dangerous, make no mistake. u.s. troops are not expected to go into direct combat, walk a patrol, come into close combat with isis fighters, but if necessary, we are told they can get the permission to accompany these local fighters into the field. they can go with them on raids, if they get permission and it comes to that. it will be it will be very significant, however, because once you have u.s. troops on the ground there, you have to have a way to get them out. if they run into trouble. how do you evacuate them? how do you helicopter them out? ....
Device. who trained you how to use this? translator: believe me, i can t say. when you finish the training, it s a secret, but they weren t speaking kurdish. reporter: a mystery, as is so much of the unfolding u.s. strategy in this critical corner of syria. clarissa ward, cnn, hasakah, syria. back with us cnn military analyst, rick francona. colonel, thanks for being with us. one thing clarissa told us about this report, which she was speaking to forces on the ground inside syria, they really didn t want u.s. troops alongside them. how sure can the u.s. be that these troops, whether they be these kurdish fighters or some so-called friendly arab groups, that they can be trusted? that s always the big question. we ve had agency cia officers making these contacts. there s a lot of ....
There s the assad regime backed by the russians, backed by iran, backed by hezbollah. can the united states be certain right now that the assistance the united states is giving are going to groups fighting isis and not fighting assad? not at all. once you send weapons to syria, theblgd end up in the islamic state. it s a mess there. weapons measure chants, sides change from day to day. we don t understand the syrian opposition, the syrian fighters at all. we certainly don t understand the kurdish forces. we can t even understand whalt battle is up in the north. we ll be a lot better off in terms of intelligence having forces there. but on the other hand, it s extremely dangerous and the question is, are we getting drawn into the syrian quagmire? what do you think of the timing of this announcement, coming at the same time diplomatic talks are happening in vienna about what to do about the crisis in syria? well, i think this goes along ....
Number, i anticipate will mostly be working to the north of raqqa, to the farthest west part of the territories held by the kurds, why the ypg. kobani, we saw highly televised, public, fight for that. there were pictures posted online suggesting a very small number of u.s. special forces may have been there assisting, targeting. nothing confirmed by u.s. officials at all. this may not be completely brand-new to those special operators in questio. if they are heading south toward raqqa, revolutionary brigades of raqqa, the syrian arab group trying to fight to reclaim that city, announced they re declaring that area a military zone because they wanted to move in on it. most people didn t think they had the capacity or military capability to do that. this may be boosting that, too. i have to bear one thing in mind as well. to the far west of where isis have territory as well, nearer to the north of aleppo, there are also syrian moderate forces, too. ....
Potentially these could get assistance as well and pressure isis to its western front, around a town called marea as well. the biggest question is who precisely are they assisting who aren t the kurdish ypg forces? the phrase syrian arab coalition, that s used here a lot. we really don t know what groups there are. you have to remember, the u.s. tried for nearly every year, spent half a billion dollars to train rebelles, a proxy force. that failed. they got 55 together. they had to scrap the plan all together. here they re looking for different groups. perhaps ones cia vetted for a well-known program they had to arm moderate rebels. these aren t familiar faces. these may well be people who aren t 100% known to u.s. special operators and that could cause complexity on the ground. you bring up a number of good points. a reminder, the russians are running air operations inside syria. the russians have troops inside ....