US to Deploy Boots on Ground in Support of Kurdish and Local Forces Against ISIS

The United States has announced deployment of boots on the ground for the first time to provide logistics and support for the rebel Kurdish and Arab troops fighting ISIS.

About 50 Special Operation troops are slated to be sent to northern Syria, to "train, advise and assist mission," said White House spokesman John Earnest.

The troops will not fighting the ISIS on ground, according to media reports.

"It will not be their responsibility to lead the charge up the hill," Earnest said. But he added, "There is no denying the amount of risk they are taking on here."

The decision to send ground troops to assist local forces battling ISIS is a shift in President Barack Obama's stance of not interfering with the raging Middle-East situation by the means of boots on ground.

"The President does expect that they can have an impact in intensifying our strategy for building the capacity of local forces inside of Syria for taking the fight on the ground to ISIL [ISIS] in their own country. That has been the core element of the military component of our strategy from the beginning: building the capacity of local forces on the ground," said Earnest.

But he noted that the US support to the rebel forces against ISIS, is not likely to lead to deposing of President Bashar Assad from power.

Earnest said that Obama sees no "military solution to the problems that are plaguing Iraq and Syria - [the solution] is a diplomatic one."

The troops will be stationed there for weeks or months at a time, with additional Special Operations forces deployed to aid in raids, while the Kurdish and other local forces will fight as "Syrian Democratic Forces."

Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mac Thornberry, told NBC News that the new move by the government came as a result of earlier failed policy to curb ISIS.

"I'm concerned that the administration is trying to put in place limited measures - too late - that are not going to make a difference. I don't see a strategy towards accomplishing a goal, I see an effort to run out the clock without disaster," he said.

The US assistance for the rebel groups against ISIS will be used to take control of the city of Raqqa, which is an unofficial capital for ISIS.

The Kurdish forces appreciated the US move to provide logistics and weapons in the fight against ISIS.

"We have experience fighting ISIS and I think the whole world has seen as evidence of that the areas that we currently hold in Syria. We hope that this assistance will evolve from all our different friends and allies. We need all types of assistance but first and foremost weapons are primarily our most important need," Mohamed Rasho, spokesman for the Syrian Kurd fighting force YPG told CNN.

Diplomats from 17 countries and the European Union met together in Vienna to discuss a peace plan to end the Syria's civil war.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said at a press conference that the participating countries including Iran and Saudi Arabia stood up for fighting the ISIS and backed a secular Syria, where it's institutions are intact, and rights of all Syrians are protected.