The United States doubled its troop presence in Syria to 2,000 as the ruling class is determined to keep some grip on power in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Bloomberg Surveillance program on Thursday that the Biden administration is “looking at getting people on the ground in Syria” after receiving positive signs from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that led the overthrow of the Assad government earlier this month.

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The U.S. had said for years that there were about 900 troops in Syria, but Major General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, acknowledged there were roughly 2,000 there now. The Pentagon was asked repeatedly about the U.S. presence in Syria in the wake of the chaotic overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad on December 8th. It did not disclose the increase and instead kept repeating the 900 figure.

Blinken had previously confirmed that the U.S. made “direct contact” with the “rebels.”

According to a report by The Middle East Eye, the comments came on the same day the Pentagon disclosed it had secretly doubled the number of U.S. troops in northeast Syria, increasing the force from approximately 900 to 2,000 soldiers. The deployment occurred well before the rebels began their swift takeover, although no specific date was provided.

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This deployment of additional U.S. troops did occur before the takeover of the Syrian ruling class, but the figures were only revealed on Thursday due to “sensitivity from a diplomatic and operational security standpoint”, Pentagon Press Secretary Patrick Ryder explained during a briefing.

This could be yet another sign that the world is inching toward World War 3. Having extra military personnel in Syria could just be one more step toward that large conflagration.