Hours after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday that the USA would send more Special Forces troops to Iraq for anti-ISIS operations “at the invitation of the Iraqi government”, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi responded without enthusiasm to the idea.
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Mr Carter said the USA forces will also be in a position to conduct unilateral operations in Syria.
“The Iraqi government stresses that any military operation or presence of any foreign force, special or not, in any place in Iraq can not be done without its approval and co-ordination with it”, the statement said. He argued that Russia’s involvement is aggravating Syria’s deadly civil war and is inhibiting the fight against ISIS.
“You heard the secretary of defense today say both in writing and verbally that we are at war”, Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Virginia, said to Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who also testified at the hearing.
“We’re prepared to do more”, he said.
A number of Iraqis believe that the US has extended an invisible helping hand to the ISIS to destabilise their already wrecked motherland even further.
The Pentagon says it will increase the number of USA troops in Iraq by 100, in an effort to create a special operations targeting force that will seek out and kill ISIS leaders, rescue hostages and gather intelligence.
“For Abadi to give a green light for the American troops to deploy in Iraq would not be a shot in the foot”, said another lawmaker from the Shi’ite alliance.
Speaking in Brussels Wednesday, Kerry expressed strong support for Abadi and said the USA plans are being carried out with the Iraqi government’s full consent.
The cities that have been occupied by IS for months are a particularly risky venture for Iraqi forces, which are planning to wage urban warfare in cities that have been booby-trapped by IS troops, he adds.
Some Republican and Democratic members of Congress have been debating for years over whether President Barack Obama’s administration should obtain congressional backing for military campaigns in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Countries could provide to help with medical teams, and intelligence gathering in Syria, he said.
Washington said on Tuesday it would send troops, expected to number around 200, to Iraq to conduct raids against the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim militants who have seized swathes of the country’s north and west and neighboring Syria, reports Reuters.
“Iraqi special operations and anti-terrorism forces are playing an important role in the fight against Daesh terrorist gangs and proved their capability in targeting Daesh leaders and carrying out unsafe missions to retake vital areas”, al-Abadi said, referring to the IS group by its Arabic acronym.
Iraq’s prime minister has defended his country’s security forces, saying they’re capable of defeating the Islamic State group without the help of foreign combat troops. “But in terms of thousands of combat troops like some on the Republican side are recommending, I think that should be a non-starter”.
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Jafaar Hussaini, a spokesman for Kata’ib Hezbollah, one of the main Shi’ite militant groups, said that any such USA force would become a “primary target for our group”.
