The number of US soldiers and civilian support staff deployed to Syria and the broader Middle East surged by more than 30% over the summer, according to Pentagon figures.

A quarterly personnel report released late last week indicates that 54,325 US troops, reservists and civilians were stationed in the Middle East and North Africa during the three-month period that ended Sept. 30 — about 33% more than during the first two quarters of 2017. The increase holds true for combat zones such as Syria and Iraq as well as neighboring countries that host US military bases.

Until this summer, data produced by the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), an in-house Pentagon organization, had consistently shown around 40,000 US troops, reservists and civilians in the region since the 2014 launch of the US-led mission to defeat the Islamic State (IS). The surge in Syria, however, predates this summer, with the number of US troops and civilians gradually increasing from 279 at the end of the Barack Obama administration by increments of 500 or so every three months under President Donald Trump, for a total of 1,723 in the third quarter of 2017 — six times last year's figure.

“Unless you read DOD quarterly personnel report, you'd never know US military presence in Middle East grew by 33%,” Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at Chatham House, a British think tank, tweeted Monday. “Wonder if Congress knows?”