Pentagon plans to invest $550 million for SDF

<p style="text-align:left">The Pentagon on February 12 requested $300 million to train and equip the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and wants nearly as much to build a &amp;ldquo;border security force&amp;rdquo; with them in Syria.

The military&rsquo;s budget proposal for 2019 also contains $850 million for train-and-equip activities in Iraq to counter the Islamic State (IS), Anadolu agency reported.

&ldquo;The training, equipment and operations support in this request will consolidate the gains achieved against [IS] and prevent its reemergence,&rdquo; according to the proposal submitted to Congress.

The Pentagon wants $1.4 billion for fiscal year 2019, an amount that is slightly less than its 2018 budget at $1.8 billion.

The U.S.-led coalition, officially known as the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), said last month it was creating a 30,000-strong border security force in northern Syria along Turkey&rsquo;s border.

The first budget proposal prepared by the Pentagon for fiscal year 2018 required $606 billion, the budget for fiscal year 2019 increased $80 billion to $686 billion.

Reporter&rsquo;s code: 50101

News Code 3937

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