Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, who arrived in Baghdad Monday, announced the U.S.is sending 560 additional troops to Iraq as part of the stepped-up fight against the “cancer” of ISIS.
Advertisement
President Barack Obama made ending the US’s almost nine-year war in Iraq a centrepiece of his presidency, but Washington has been drawn ever deeper back into the country by the war against Daesh.
The ultimate goal, he added, was “the recapture of all of Iraqi territory by the Iraqi security forces, but of course Mosul is the biggest part of that”.
Carter told reporters that US advisers are prepared to accompany Iraqi battalions in operations, as those units begin the Mosul siege.
The White House confirmed President Obama approved the deployment of more troops, bringing the total of USA forces in Iraq to 4,600. It was captured by IS in the summer of 2014 and the extremist group has been using it as a main headquarters since. “What I’ll be discussing with Prime Minister Abadi and our commanders there are the next plays in the campaign, which involve the collapse and control over Mosul”, Carter said aboard a military plane.
Pentagon officials said the US troops will focus largely on logistics and intelligence that will increase the combat power of the Iraqi forces.
He is in Iraq to discuss the Iraqi army’s plans. Originally, the US military expressed hope that it could train sufficient Iraqi troops for an offensive to retake Mosul by spring of 2015.
“Despite the summer heat, our Iraqi partners – with your intrepid support – pressed ahead with the fight and cleared one town after another, dealing ISIL a series of blows”, Carter told USA troops at Baghdad’s airport, using an acronym for the militant group.
Separately, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee said on Monday that President Obama must ask Congress for additional funds to pay for the deployment of more troops to Iraq, as Congress and the White House debate defense spending amid mandatory budget cuts.
Iraqi and Kurdish forces have been training and preparing for the final battle.
The latest U.S. troop increase in Iraq comes just over two months after President Barack Obama announced the deployment of an extra 250 soldiers to Syria, adding to the 50 that were already on the ground. Five more people died in bombings on Tuesday elsewhere in Iraq. But the Iraqis have been unable to prevent the Islamic State from carrying out devastating suicide attacks in Baghdad, including one earlier this month from which the death toll has reached 186.
The continued existence of Mosul and Raqqa as ISIS-held cities is a rebuke to the civilized world, Pentagon officials say.
Advertisement
Last week, IS killed more than 300 people in two attacks.
