Specialised US troops to fight IS in Iraq

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton rejected the idea of sending thousands of USA ground troops to fight Islamic State in the Middle East, saying such a move would give the militant group a recruitment tool to boost its ranks.

The U.S. military is preparing to establish a new Special Operations task force in Iraq, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said Tuesday, as the Obama administration seeks to intensify pressure on Islamic State commanders and expand U.S. troops’ direct involvement in battling the militant group.

The special operators will work with Iraqi and Kurdish forces to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence and capture IS leaders, Mr Carter told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

“We’re using the might of the finest fighting force the world has ever known”. More are on the way.

Carter, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, faced skeptical lawmakers who argued that the USA needs to be more forceful in countering ISIS, which claims responsibility for recent suicide bombings in Paris and Beirut and the downing of a Russian airliner.

Successes by the targeting force, he said, will create a “cycle of better intelligence, which generates more targets, more raids, and more momentum”. “You don’t know at night who is going to be coming in the window”, Carter said. “We have the long reach that no one else has”. Canada and other nations also have special forces providing training.

At the time, Carter listed more raids among his priority “three Rs”, along with attacking Islamic State’s stronghold in Raqqa, Syria, and helping recapture Ramadi in Iraq.

A US official told ABC News that initial planning for the new special operations task called for roughly 200 personnel in Iraq.

“Our effectiveness is inextricably linked to the quality of intelligence we have”, Dunford said. One U.S. Special Operations commando was killed in that raid.

They will help us garner valuable ground intelligence, further enhance our air campaign, and above all, enable local forces that can regain and then hold territory occupied by ISIL.

Obama has set the maximum number of US troops at 3,550, but it was not clear if the president will increase that number to accommodate the force, or whether the teams would have to be built within the current limit.

Carter said specific elements of the adaptations to ISIL include deploying a specialized expeditionary targeting force, expanding US attacks on ISIL infrastructure and revenue sources, improving ways to find and eliminate ISIL leadership, and organizing a new way to leverage established infrastructure. “We fought them before and we are ready to resume fighting”.

‘This force will also be in a position to conduct unilateral operations into Syria’. They both also said that, while the country should center around the government in Baghdad, there must be a level of decentralization so the Sunnis and Kurds each have a degree of self-government.

After Mr Carter declared to the committee that “We are at war” it was pointed out to him there had been no declaration of war. “I think we need to have a debate right now about committing this country to a war with this vicious terrorist group instead of just allowing this President to do it without any checks or balance from the legislative branch”.

The ISIL attacks in France, which killed 130 people on November 13, has added a sense of urgency to the fight, Carter said.