WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama has approved a proposal to send an additional group of up to 450 troops to Iraq to train, advise and assist Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters, the White House confirmed Wednesday.
The plan is an attempt to offset recent battlefield losses and help Iraqi forces prepare for a campaign to retake western Iraq’s Anbar province from Daesh militants.
Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, fell to the militants on May 14.
U.S. officials initially downplayed the loss of the city, but critical remarks from Defense Secretary Ashton Carter highlighted concerns regarding the preparedness of Iraqi forces to meet the challenge posed by Daesh.
“What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight,” Carter said. “They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and yet they failed to fight, they withdrew from the site, and that says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIL [Daesh] and defend themselves.”
Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and Shiite militias launched an offensive to retake the provincial capital roughly two weeks later, but have so far been unable to dislodge the group.
The administration has maintained that the forces who retreated from Ramadi last month were not U.S. or coalition trained.
Obama made Wednesday’s decision after a request from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and with the recommendation of Carter, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey, and the full support of his national security team, according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
A senior administration official said the mission would also allow the coalition to better coordinate with Iraqi forces in Anbar province.
“There are forces across the country that are in this fight with ISIL in the north, in Anbar, and we want to be able to expedite the ability to equip them,” Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said during a conference call with reporters. “Just as we're also working to expedite equipment to Kurdish forces in the north.”
Wednesday’s announcement does not “represent a change in mission”, but instead “adds another location for DoD to conduct similar activities in more areas in Iraq”, the Pentagon said in a statement referring to an acronym for the Department of Defense.
The additional training will take place in eastern Anbar’s al-Taqaddum military base, according to the White House.
During the same conference call with Rhodes, Assistant Secretary Of Defense for International Security Affairs Elissa Slotkin noted that the mission would also enable the coalition greater outreach with the region's Sunni tribes.
Slotkin said that the Pentagon would begin to deploy troops to the al-Taqaddum base in the next couple of days, adding that the first group would be from forces already on the ground in Iraq while the rest will be deployed from outside of the country.
Al-Taqaddum is located between Ramadi and Fallujah -- both currently held by Daesh.
Regarding the selection of al-Taqaddum, Brett McGurk, Obama's deputy special envoy to the U.S.-led coalition, told reporters that due to its strategic location, the base would allow the coalition to more quickly carry out airstrikes against Deash.
The U.S. and coalition partners are currently training Iraqi forces in al-Asad, Besmaya, Erbil and Tajib. More than 9,000 Iraqi troops have completed training while an additional 3,000 are currently in the process, the White House said.
The additional troop deployment will bring the total number of U.S. forces in the country to more than 3,500. They will not serve in a combat role, the White House said.
