We don’t need foreign ground forces to defeat ISIS – Iraqi PM

“We’re good at intelligence, we’re good at mobility, we’re good at surprise”. A Delta Force raid in northern Iraq in October underlined the cost of such missions.

Carter’s comments came in remarks made to the House Armed Services Committee in Washington on Tuesday.

“American special operators bring a unique suite of capabilities that make them force multipliers”, Carter said.

Iraq could be asked to take any Iraqi citizens captured, but if there are Syrians or foreign fighters captured by the U.S.it’s not clear what will happen to them.

“There is no need for foreign combat ground troops on Iraqi soil”, NINA news agency quoted a statement by Abadi’s office as saying.

Kerry said that the move to deploy Special Forces was not new but an extension of previous agreements with Iraq.

“What is true is that from the start our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them”.

“You don’t know at night who is going to be coming in the window”, he said. One US troop died in the operation.

U.S. President Barack Obama has approved a plan to send Special Forces to Syria as well.

On Wednesday, Kerry said in Brussels that “the government of Iraq was of course briefed in advance of Secretary Carter’s announcement”.

So many details remain to be worked out however, officials say, it could be weeks before the troops arrive.

Should the US send its forces across Iraq to assassinate ISIS leaders, or should America not have boots on the ground in Iraq? According to the officials, the force would be comprised of 100 to 150 special operations forces that would conduct ground combat raids against ISIS targets in both Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. already has some 3,500 troops in Iraq, mostly working as advisers and trainers for the country’s security forces. “Tens of thousands of United States of America personnel are operating in the broader Middle East region, and more are on the way”.

While Carter did not divulge much about the special ops forces that will be battling ISIS, DOD officials have told NBC News that the expeditionary targeting force would be permanently based in Iraq. Asked whether the IS group had been contained, Dunford said: “We have not contained IS”.

“If all we have is Western aggression, we will never win”, he said.

He expressed “full and total respect” for al-Abadi’s leadership, and said plans would go forward “in full consultation and with full consent of the Iraqi government”.

He also said foreign ground combat troops were not needed in Iraq, although it was unclear whether Baghdad viewed these USA special operations forces in that role.

Carter also updated Congress on the campaign to destroy the Islamic State’s illegal oil business. Assad told Czech television that U.S. air strikes on Syria had not slowed IS, but that Russian bombing was doing so.