With the objective of training and advising Kurdish and Turkish forces, President Obama has made a decision to deploy an additional 1500 troops to Iraq in the upcoming months.
This initiative has come up as a result of the major offensive planned against the Islamic State fighters that have come across the border from Syria into Iraq.
A senior administration official has said that this does not mean the mission has changed where U.S service members will be sent back into combat but will remain as a mission where training sites will be run so as to break the hold of the Islamic State’s occupation in northern and eastern Iraq.
Also, a number of these personnel will be deployed to the Anbar province which is a Sunni stronghold ever since the invasion led the United States in 2003. This is because these Sunni militants aligned with the Islamic State have been responsible for holding territory across the province of Anbar.
The White House Budget officials, on the other hand, have asked Congress for $1.6 billion for the purpose of training and equipping Iraqi troops apart from $5 billion to combat the Islamic State in the Middle East.
With the deployment of these troops authorized by the Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Rear Admiral Kirby, the former stated that they were responding to a call for help from the Iraqi government.
President Obama have authorized the additional troops to operate outside Iraqi bases apart from the base located in the capital as well.