USA defense chief Ash Carter said the Pentagon was deploying a specialised operations force which would “over time” conduct unilateral operations in Iraq and Syria as part of U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State (IS).
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The Iraqi government “stresses that any military operation or the deployment of any foreign forces – special or not – in any place in Iraq can not happen without its approval and coordination and full respect of Iraqi sovereignty”, he said.
Though the new special forces troops will be based in Iraq, they will have the ability to also conduct raids across the border in northern Syria.
There now are about 3,300 USA troops in Iraq, and President Barack Obama had previously announced he was sending fewer than 50 special operations forces to Syria.
“You need a lot of special operators to maintain a certain tempo, to be able to not only capture or kill the targets, but also exploit intelligence and then use that exploited intelligence to do another raid”, he said today on MSNBC. “We’re proud of our partnership with Iraqi forces in this battle, including 130 precision airstrikes since August, and training key ISF units”. Nine of the strikes were centered near Ramadi, where they destroyed two buildings, 10 fighting positions, an improvised explosive device and a tunnel used by Islamic state, it added.
According to a US official, the new USA step against IS could involve up to a couple hundred troops, including the assault teams, aviation units and other support units.
However, there has been speculation that USA forces are already engaging in active fighting against Daesh in Iraq.
“We do not need foreign ground combat forces on Iraqi land”, Haider al-Abbadi said in a statement on Tuesday.
“As we further develop plans for these limited forces, we will continue to work closely with our Iraqi partners on where they will be deployed, what kind of missions they will undertake, and how they will support Iraqi efforts”, one United States official said. He has been reluctant to commit large numbers of U.S. ground troops, instead deploying limited numbers of advisors and elite forces.
Any deployment of official U.S. combat troops in Iraq would face opposition from Shia militias aligned to the Iraqi government, who have warned they would resist a significant American presence in the country.
The top USA military officer, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, said the new force would greatly accelerate the collection of intelligence, which “will make our operations much more effective”.
In May, a Delta Force raid in Syria killed IS financier Abu Sayyaf, yielding intelligence about the group’s structure and finances.
“If all we have is Western aggression, we will never win”, he said.
He said the number in the new expeditionary force would be more than 50. “We’re good at intelligence, we’re good at mobility, we’re good at surprise”, Carter said.
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The reward for those efforts is a bloodcurdling threat to abandon the fight against the Islamic State and turn against American forces the minute their boots hit the ground.
