The US is expanding military operations overseas without actually increasing the number of regular troops deployed there. The military spends great sums to hire private intelligence contractors to do the fighting.

The Department of Defense has for the first time indicated that it was hiring private military contractors (PMC) for operations in Syria.

The nature of the US mission in Syria is highly sensitive; little information is available in open sources. According to a Daily Beast report, military contractors would be working inside Syria alongside the roughly 300 US troops (Special Forces – SOF) already deployed there.

In Iraq the number of contractors working for the Defense Department had just about doubled from 1,300 to 2,500 since last summer. The number is not capped. Most of them are working in security, transportation, construction, communication support, training, management and administrative roles. Nearly 70 percent of the contractors are American citizens, 20 percent are third-country nationals and the remaining are local Iraqis. The number of contractors, who are closer to the battlefield than the military advisors, is classified.