The White House said the forces will take part in an already 3,000-strong US mission to "train, advise, and assist" Iraqi army and Sunni tribal fighters.
Recent Islamic State victories in Ramadi in Iraq and Syria's Palmyra seem to have rubbished Obama's strategy of depending on US airpower and an amalgam of disparate ground forces to "defeat and degrade" the Islamic State.
Amid the criticism, the White House also announced the "expedited delivery of essential equipment and materiel" for tribal and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters -- in coordination with the central government in Baghdad.
Until now, Baghdad funneled weapons and oversees the training of Sunni tribal fighters, seen as likely to be key to victory in Ramadi and the surrounding Anbar province.
The Obama administration is now looking at having American troops more directly involved in training those Sunni volunteers.
Iraq's Sunni Muslim community has yet to join the fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State in large numbers.
Among Sunnis there is simmering distrust of the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, which IS fighters have sought to exploit.
The larger US deployment is expected to mean increasing the number of training sites from the four currently being used.
Taken together the measures would significantly scale up US activities in Iraq, but stop short of a strategy overhaul.
Obama's Republican political adversaries seized on that aspect of the announcement.
"It's a step in the right direction, but as the president admitted the other day, he has no strategy to win. And this is another tactical move," said House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner.
"I support the tactical move the president is taking, but where's the overarching strategy?"
(AFP)
france24.com
10/6/15
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Iraqi forces battled jihadists on several fronts Thursday and were poised to receive the help of 450 extra US troops slated for deployment near Ramadi...
ReplyDeleteWashington's decision to send more advisers and trainers to Iraq failed however to silence critics who say the White House lacks a strategy to combat the Islamic State group.
A year after a jihadist-led offensive saw the government lose control over swathes of Iraq, military operations to weaken IS were experiencing mixed fortunes.
The autonomous Kurdistan region's peshmerga forces pushed south and west of Kirkuk on the back of intensive bombing by Iraqi and US-led coalition warplanes, security officials said.....AFP
11/6/15