There are 8,892 U.S. troops in Iraq, 15,298 in Afghanistan and 1,720 in Syria as of Sept. 30, according to a DoD report publicly released on Nov. 17.
The Defense Manpower Data Center provided the figures as part of a quarterly count of active duty, Reserve, Guard and civilian personnel deployed worldwide.
The actual numbers could be higher because DoD has historically excluded certain special operations forces or temporary personnel from the official count, Defense News said.
DMDC’s figures are higher than DoD’s previous disclosures of overseas troop levels.