US Close to Decision on Sending More Military Trainers to Iraq

 President Barack Obama will decide as early as this week on a plan to send hundreds of additional military trainers to Iraq, U.S. officials said Tuesday, as the Pentagon continues in its bid to bolster Iraqi troops in their fight against the Islamic State group.

 The new set of up to 500 personnel would join the 3,000 trainers and advisers Obama authorized last year after the militants seized large parts of northern and western Iraq in an offensive that dealt repeated blows to the Iraqi military.

 Officials said the plan would also include establishing a new training base in Anbar province and give greater support to Sunni fighters that are seen as critical in efforts to recapture control of Anbar.

Iraqi security forces supported by militias have been trying to reclaim areas near Ramadi, the provincial capital, since it fell to the militants last month. National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey did not give details Tuesday about the potential deployment, saying only that the White House is “considering a range of options.”

 “Those options include sending additional trainers to Iraq,” Baskey said.

 Obama said Monday that Iraqi troops who have undergone U.S. training have been effective, and that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi agrees on the need for more security forces who are “trained, fresh, well-equipped and focused.”

 In addition to providing training, the U.S. has been leading a coalition of countries that has conducted more than 4,400 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria targeting the Islamic State group.

 White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday there is evidence the combined strategy can work. “There have been areas where we have seen the Iraqi security forces, when backed with the support of our military coalition, not just demonstrate a will to fight but actually demonstrate some effectiveness when fighting,” Earnest said.

“And that has succeeded in driving ISIL out of areas like Tikrit and Haditha, even some areas in Anbar like Baghdadi. That is an indication that there is a strategy, there is a template for success here.”

 Critics have accused Obama of not having a developed strategy, something he himself said was the case in comments Monday.

They have called for the U.S. to send ground troops to fight in Iraq, something the president has so far ruled out as a possibility‎.

Source: VOA News