President Obama(Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP)
WASHINGTON — President Obama will send up to 450 more U.S. troops to Iraq to step up the training of local forces as they battle the Islamic State, officials said Wednesday.
"This train, advise, and assist mission builds on lessons learned during the past several months and is just one aspect of our commitment to support the Iraqi Security Forces," spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Earnest said Obama has also ordered "the expedited delivery of essential equipment and materiel" to Iraqi forces seeking to re-claim territory captured by the Islamic State.
The decision, the Pentagon said in a statement, "does not represent a change in mission, but rather adds another location for DoD to conduct similar activities in more areas in Iraq. U.S. forces continue to perform an advisory, training, and support role and are not conducting offensive ground combat operations."
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In addition to the 450 new trainers, the plan calls for stopping the flow of "foreign fighters" into and out of both Iraq and neighboring Syria. Another goal is getting more Sunni Muslims, a minority in Shiite-dominated Iraq, to roll back the gains made by the Islamic State.
The new order brings the overall U.S. troop level remaining in Iraq to around 3,550, the vast majority of them involved in some sort of training projects.
The United States is also conducting bombing missions against Islamic State positions, as well as providing aerial reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering missions.
Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said the administration has been looking at these changes for months, in consultation with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other Iraqi officials. Obama and Abadi met over the weekend on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Germany.
The review included the impact of "setbacks" in Anbar province, the focus of the revamped plan.
Asked about the lack of advisers in the field, Rhodes said Obama has not ruled out future steps, but the emphasis is on improving Iraqi security forces.
"Our overriding focus here is making sure there is Iraqi capacity on the ground," Rhodes said.
The number of U.S. training sites will increase from four to five under the plan.
Throughout the process, the president and aides stressed they would not be sending U.S.combat troops to Iraq, sticking strictly to the training function.
"The president directed his national security team to intensify efforts with coalition partners to stem the flow of foreign fighters to and from Iraq and Syria," Earnest said.
Earnest said the president supports an Iraqi effort "to build an inclusive and effective governance structure within which all of Iraq's diverse communities feel that they have a say in determining the future of their country."
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he supports the additional aid, but he added that Obama lacks an overall strategy "to win" the fight against the Islamic State.
"It's clear that our training mission alone has not been enough to slow down the spread of ISIL," Boehner said. "What's the overarching strategy that the United States and our allies are going to employ to go out and stop the spread of this horrible disease?"
Tom Vanden Brook and Jim Michaels contributed to this report
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