Troop increase in Iraq signals new phase in IS fight: Obama
Date
11/10/2014 1:16:47 AM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) US President Barack Obama said yesterday that deploying additional troops to Iraq signals a "new phase" in the fight against the Islamic State group.
After earlier unveiling plans to send up to 1,500 more US troops to Iraq to advise and train the country's forces, Obama told CBS News on Sunday that the US-led effort to defeat IS was moving to a new stage. "Phase one was getting an Iraqi government that was inclusive and credible - and we now have done that," Obama said.
"Rather than just try to halt (IS's) momentum, we're now in a position to start going on some offence," he added, stressing the need for Iraqi ground troops to start pushing back IS fighters.
"We will provide them close air support once they are prepared to start going on the offence against (IS)," Obama said. "But what we will not be doing is having our troops do the fighting."
Going on the offensive will be a significant challenge for Iraq's forces, which saw multiple divisions fall apart in the early days of the jihadist offensive, leaving major units that need to be reconstituted.
The additional troops would roughly double the number of American military personnel in the country to about 3,100, marking a significant return of US forces to Iraq by a president who has hailed his role in their 2011 departure.
IS, meanwhile, said that a British national had carried out a suicide bombing that killed a senior Iraqi police officer. The group said that "Abu Sumayyah Al Britani" detonated a truck carrying eight tonnes of explosives on the outskirts of Baiji, killing Major General Faisal Al Zamili.
The attack on Friday came during fighting to capture Baiji, which has been the scene of heavy clashes as pro-government forces seek to fully retake the town.
A senior officer said Friday that government forces now hold "more than 70 percent" of the town, which is near where Iraqi soldiers have been holding out for months against a jihadist siege of Iraq's largest oil refinery.
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