The U.S. will deploy a new special operations force to the Middle East to help fight Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Tuesday.
Advertisement
Speaking to the House Armed Services Committee, the Pentagon chief said that a “specialised expeditionary targeting force” was being deployed in Iraq to help Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces battle ISIS.
“The Iraqi government underlines that any military operation or deployment of any foreign special or non-special forces in any part of Iraq can’t be done without its approval, full coordination and with full respect to Iraqi sovereignty”, he said. According to the Washington Post, the new task force, unlike the previous raids carried out by forces stationed outside of Iraq and Syria, will offer greater detail into the planning and conduction of such operations.
Meanwhile, Iraqi and Kurdish forces have driven ISIL out of Beiji.
But “we confirm that Iraq has enough men and resolve to defeat Daesh and other similar criminal groups”, he said, using another acronym for the Islamic State group. He said the deployment was being done in cooperation with the Iraqi government.
The new expeditionary force will be based in northern Iraq with an initial focus on backing the Kurds and protecting Iraq’s borders with Syria. He said the new force would conduct operations similar to two from earlier this year.
Should the US send its forces across Iraq to assassinate ISIS leaders, or should America not have boots on the ground in Iraq? That same raid resulted in the death of Master Sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler, the first American fatality from combat in Iraq since the return of US forces to that country in mid-2014. “Our assessment is that this force and the operations this force will conduct will provide us additional intelligence that will make our operations much more effective”. “And that’s the sensation we want all of ISIL’s leadership and followers to have”.
“In Syria, the U.S. president has approved a plan to send in special forces, but is doing so without the consent of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and that’s something that has angered Assad since the coalition launched air strikes more than a year ago”.
Mr. Obama had directed military leaders to intensify and accelerate the USA campaign against ISIS before the November 13 Paris attacks and Carter said the US continues to ramp up those efforts in the wake of those attacks.
Advertisement
“We’re prepared to do more”, Carter said Tuesday. “I have every reason to believe the president will allow us to do more and authorize us to do more when we have more opportunities”.
