US to send 1,500 more troops to Iraq
8 Nov BBC
The US is to send 1,500 more non-combat troops to Iraq to boost Iraqi
forces fighting Islamic State (IS) militants, the White House says.The
Pentagon said the troops would train and assist Iraqi forces.
President Barack Obama authorised the deployment following a request
from Iraq's government, the Pentagon added.IS militants control large
areas of Iraq and Syria but have been targeted by hundreds of air
strikes by a US-led coalition since August.
The 1,500 additional US troops will join several hundred military
advisers that are already in Iraq to assist the country's army.A
statement from the Pentagon said the troops would be establishing
several sites to train nine Iraqi army and three Kurdish Peshmerga
brigades.
The US military would also be setting up two “advise and assist
operations centres” outside Baghdad and the northern city of Irbil, the
statement added.
“US troops will not be in combat, but they will be better positioned
to support Iraqi security forces as they take the fight” to IS, White
House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.He said President Obama
would also be asking Congress for $5.6bn (£3.5bn) to support the ongoing
operations against IS fighters in both Iraq and Syria.
The announcement came hours after Mr Obama met congressional leaders
in Washington for the first time after the Republicans won control of
the Senate in Tuesday's elections.
In the eyes of the Pentagon, the Iraqi armed forces are responding
well to the training they have already been given.
Its spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said they had “stiffened their
spine”. So the expansion of the training programme to the north, south
and west of Iraq is designed to build on what is being labelled as
progress.But others may see this deployment differently. There are those
who recall how, earlier this year, the US-trained and equipped Iraqi
armed forces simply crumbled in the face of Islamic State militants.
Rear Adm Kirby blamed the previous Iraqi government for that, and
said that the Iraqis were now making gains and that the situation was
completely different this time.
The Obama administration has said its aim was to “degrade and
ultimately destroy” Islamic State militants, who control large parts of
the country after launching an offensive in the north in June.A US-led
coalition has launched more than 400 air strikes on the group in Iraq
since August, and more than 300 across the border in Syria.
The strikes have destroyed hundreds of the group's armed vehicles and
several of its bases, but Islamic State has continued its campaign to
establish a caliphate.Last week, officials in Iraq's western Anbar
province said IS militants had killed at least 322 members of a Sunni
tribe who had tried to resist the jihadists. |