United States to send special forces to Iraq despite rejection by Baghdad

“Specialized expeditionary targeting force” members will serve as advisers to the Iraqi military and Kurdish militias, and will help facilitate the U.S.-led coalition’s air campaign, Carter told the House Armed Services Committee.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, the nation’s top uniformed officer who testified alongside Carter, said there could be more troops deployed – beyond the 3,500 – in the months ahead.

Should the USA send its forces across Iraq to assassinate ISIS leaders, or should America not have boots on the ground in Iraq?

Carter said the force will also be used to conduct unilateral operations in Syria. “We fought them before and we are ready to resume fighting”, said Kata’ib Hezbollah spokesman, Jafaar Hussaini.

He did not offer specifics on troop numbers, but said they would also be focused on securing Iraq’s borders and building the capacity of the Iraqi government forces. Their job is to assist and advise mostly Kurdish forces in their combat ops against ISIS targets in Syria and will be “semi-permanently” located at a Kurdish military operations center at what is presumed to be a safe distance from any ground combat with Syria.

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

Hof, who is now at the Atlantic Council think-tank, said the USA special forces were filling a gap in capable ground forces to fight Islamic State, which won control of Iraq’s Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi in May and also controls the northern of Mosul.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant wants the United States to be “impetuous right now, as opposed to being aggressive”, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday. The addition of this separate force marks a significant expansion of US ground operations in the fight against ISIS.

“It puts everybody on notice in Syria that you don’t know at night who’s going to be coming in through the window”, Carter said.

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

“Iraqi special forces, the counter-terrorism force and other heroic Iraqi combatants have played a key role in targeting the leaders of Daesh and undertaken risky missions in order to seize back vital and strategic areas from the terrorists of Daesh”, it said.

Abadi’s remarks came a day after he said that Iraq has enough forces to defeat IS, an apparent response to a proposal by U.S. senators to triple the number of American forces in the country.

“We’ve cut the lines of communication at Sinjar between Mosul and Raqqa”, he said.