Washington announced on Friday the U.S. will deploy dozens of troops to Syria in an effort to assist Kurdish and Arab forces fighting the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest in a press briefing said the U.S. would be deploying "less than 50" Special Operations forces to the Kurdish-controlled region in northern Syria.

Earnest deflected criticism that the number of Special Ops forces deployed would not be enough for the task.

"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 in their own country," Earnest said. "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."

Earnest was clear: Forces deployed would not have a combat mission.

President Barack Obama has been hesitant to send U.S. troops to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But, since 2014, he has been slowly elevating U.S. involvement in the war-torn region.

The troops will be sent to Syria in the coming days.

The decision to send in Special Ops comes after the death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq killed while engaging in a raid, which resulted in the liberation of hostages held in an ISIS prison.

Mohamed Rasho, a spokesman for the Syrian Kurd fighting force YPG, has voiced his readiness to accept help in his fight against ISIS.

"We hope that this assistance will evolve from all our different friends and allies," Rasho said as CNN reported. “We need all types of assistance but first and foremost weapons are primarily our most important need."

The reaction to Obama's move to deploy troops into Syria has already received criticism from both the left and the right.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine bemoaned the lack of congressional oversight in the president's bellicose actions, also criticizing the administration's conflicting actions of pursuing diplomacy while deploying troops.

"We are now one year, two months, and 23 days into an unauthorized and executive war. It is time for Congress to do its most solemn job -- to debate and declare war," he said. "It is also time for the Administration to detail to the America people a comprehensive strategy to bring both the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, which are metastasizing around the globe, to a peaceful end."

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham also expressed his frustration about the deployment of troops in a statement.

“President Obama is putting 50 brave Americans at risk without a clear strategy of how to degrade and destroy ISIL,” Graham said.