Obama plans to double U.S. force in Iraq
The U.S. military will boost its effort to help Iraqi forces confront Islamic State militants in the coming weeks, deploying 1,500 more troops to the country. (Reuters)
President Obama authorized Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday to send up to 1,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, roughly doubling the force the United States has built up since June to fight the Islamic State militants who control much of Iraq and Syria.
The announcement of a major increase in the force in Iraq deepens U.S. involvement in a messy regional conflict that officials are warning may last for years. The White House said it would request $5.6billion for the military campaign against the Islamic State, including $1.6billion to train and equip Iraqi troops.
If funding for the plan is approved, the additional U.S. troops will expand a military advisory mission in Iraq that began in the summer and will establish a new effort to train Iraqi forces, Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagons press secretary, told reporters.
The expansion of the U.S. military footprint in Iraq, nearly three years after Obama ended the last American war there, also underscores the severity of the threat U.S. officials see in the Islamic State, a well-armed extremist group that has drawn strength from the conflict in Syria and has used brutal tactics to expand its realm across Iraq and Syria.
In response to that threat, Obama had established a renewed military force in Iraq of 1,400 troops, significantly increasing a security presence that since the 2011 withdrawal had included only a small security assistance office attached to the U.S. Embassy.
Officials said they hoped that lawmakers would approve the funding for the new troop plan in the coming weeks.
U.S. officials said that, under the new plan, U.S. Central Command would establish two additional hubs for U.S. military advisers, who have been working alongside Iraqi officials since the summer as they oversee Iraqi efforts to expel the Islamic State from the country.
One will be in western Anbar province, which has been partly controlled by Islamic State militants for about a year, and the second will be north of Baghdad.
Central Command would also establish training sites for Iraqi forces in several locations in the northern, western and southern parts of the country, including ethnically mixed Diyala province. Since the return of U.S. troops to Iraq in the summer, they had previously been confined mostly to Baghdad and Irbil in the north.
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Obama plans to double U.S. force in Iraq