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U.S. Will Deploy 560 More Troops to Iraq to Help Retake Mosul From ISIS U.S. Will Deploy 560 More Troops to Iraq to Help Retake Mosul From ISIS
(about 5 hours later)
BAGHDAD — President Obama will deploy 560 more troops to Iraq to help retake Mosul, the largest city controlled by the Islamic State, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced on Monday. It is the latest escalation of the United States’ role in the Iraq war by Mr. Obama, who ran for office on a pledge to end America’s involvement in the conflict. BAGHDAD — President Obama will send 560 more troops to Iraq to help retake Mosul, the largest city still controlled by the Islamic State, a deployment intended to capitalize on recent battlefield gains that also illustrates the obstacles that Mr. Obama has faced in trying to wind down America’s wars.
Many of the newly deployed troops will be based at an airfield 40 miles south of Mosul that was reclaimed by Iraqi soldiers on Saturday. The additional troops will bring the official number of American service members in Iraq to 4,647 — far fewer than the 130,000 the United States had in the country about a decade ago. The additional troops, announced here on Monday by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, are the latest escalation of the American military role in Iraq by Mr. Obama, who withdrew the last American soldiers from Iraq at the end of 2011.
American commanders plan to use the base, Qayyarah Airfield West, as a staging area to provide logistical support to Iraqi forces as they try to retake Mosul. The Iraqis have struggled to move troops, resources and equipment — tasks that will become even harder as their forces move closer to Mosul, which is 250 miles from their major supply hubs in Baghdad. He began sending them back three years later after Islamic State fighters swept into the country from Syria.
“We need to move to this place to be as close to the fighting as we have been,” said Lt. Gen. Sean B. MacFarland, the head of American forces in Iraq, who addressed members of the news media with Mr. Carter after the announcement at the airport in Baghdad. Many of the newly deployed troops will be based at an airfield 40 miles south of Mosul that was reclaimed by Iraqi soldiers on Saturday. Administration officials said the airfield would be critical to a successful military operation because the United States could use it as a staging area to provide logistical support to Iraqi forces as they try to retake Mosul.
Some of the American troops who will be stationed at the airfield specialize in infrastructure support, such as building bridges — a technical skill the Iraqis will need for the assault on Mosul because the Islamic State has destroyed many around the city since it took control of Mosul in 2014. The Iraqis have struggled with the logistics of moving troops and equipment and these tasks will become more difficult as their forces move closer to Mosul, 250 miles from major supply hubs in Baghdad.
The new troop deployment comes two years after Mr. Obama said that while the United States would help the Iraqi military reclaim territory from the Islamic State, those efforts would “not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.” Since then, he has steadily increased the number of troops in Iraq and given them more authority. Three service members have been killed. The deployment will bring the official number of American service members in Iraq to 4,647. The United States had about 130,000 service members in the country about a decade ago.
In April, Mr. Carter came to Baghdad on a similar trip to announce that Mr. Obama had given American military advisers the approval to work closer to the front lines of the conflict with smaller units of Iraqi forces. As part of that announcement, Mr. Obama deployed an additional 217 troops to Iraq. The increase has raised concerns among many Americans who believe that the United States is on a never-ending mission in Iraq. “We need to move to this place to be as close to the fighting as we have been,” said Lt. Gen. Sean B. MacFarland, the head of American forces in Iraq, speaking to reporters with Mr. Carter at the Baghdad airport.
The announcement occurred as Iraqi soldiers appeared to be gaining momentum on the battlefield. Mosul is now the only major city in the country that the Iraqis do not control, and the Islamic State has not seized any substantial new territory since May 2015. But the Iraqis do not seem to be able to prevent the Islamic State from carrying out devastating suicide attacks in Baghdad, including one earlier this month whose death toll has reached 300 people. For Mr. Obama, sending more troops raises the chances that he could fulfill his hope of handing over a liberated Mosul to his successor. But it also means that he will leave the next president with a significant military presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Last week, Mr. Obama announced the United States would keep 8,400 troops in Afghanistan indefinitely.
To help the Iraqis stop the bombings, Mr. Carter said a three-star American general in charge of the American military’s task force on improvised explosive devices would be sent to Baghdad to work with the Iraqis. At a NATO meeting in Poland over the weekend, the president spoke of his frustrations with these long-running military engagements. In Iraq, he noted, American troops vanquished Al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni militant group. But the extremists reconstituted themselves in Syria as the Islamic State, before seizing the cities of Falluja and Mosul.
Mr. Carter said the general and his staff would bring “that substantial experience and tradecraft that we learned by hard experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Still, the president said Iraqi forces had made important gains in the last several weeks. Most important, they retook Falluja, a victory that he said, “got a little bit lost in the news, but that’s a big town.”
American military commanders have begun calling the Qayyarah Airfield West “Q West,” or “Key West,” because its Iraqi name is difficult to pronounce. As the Iraqi military closed in on the airfield last week, Islamic State fighters quickly fled and the Iraqis, who lost control of the base in 2014, faced little resistance as they reclaimed it. Iraqi military officials, however, said in interviews on Monday that there was substantial damage to the air base that would require significant repairs. “They’re now positioning themselves so that they can start going after Mosul,” the president said. The Islamic State fighters, he said, were “on their heels, and we’re going to stay on it.”
“We were surprised by how destroyed the base was and how they had done it in an organized way,” said Lt. Gen. Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, the commander of Iraqi counterterrorism forces, who planned and participated in the operation to retake the airfield. White House officials resisted suggestions that more American troops might be needed to uproot the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, from Mosul.
General Asadi said one of two runways at the airfield had been badly damaged, along with some buildings. “The president has been very clear about what our mission is and what our mission isn’t,” the press secretary, Josh Earnest, said on Monday. “This is an effort to reinforce our support for Iraqi forces that are enjoying some success in driving ISIL out of strategic, important areas in Iraq, that can put them in a position to succeed on a much bigger goal: driving ISIL out of Iraq’s second largest city.”
A small group of American forces surveyed the airfield shortly after it was seized by the Iraqis, but American military officials said it was unclear how much time it would take before cargo planes and other aircraft could land there. Among the troops who are being deployed to the airfield are engineers who have expertise in building and fixing runways. Some of the American troops who will be stationed at the airfield, known as Qaiyara Airfield West, specialize in infrastructure projects, like building bridges, which is a technical skill the Iraqis will need for the assault on Mosul because the Islamic State has destroyed many around the city.
Although the official number of United States troops in Iraq will rise to 4,647, that figure understates the actual number of service members in the country. The Pentagon uses a system for counting troops that excludes certain service members who are supposed to be stationed in the country for less than four months, and for commandos. Defense Department officials have said there are probably more than 5,000 Americans in Iraq. The new deployment comes two years after Mr. Obama said that while the United States would help Iraq reclaim territory from the Islamic State, its efforts would “not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.” Since then, he has steadily increased the number of troops and given them more authority. Three service members have been killed.
In April, Mr. Carter came to Baghdad to announce that Mr. Obama had given American military advisers the approval to work closer to the front lines of the conflict with smaller units of Iraqi forces. As part of that announcement, Mr. Obama deployed an additional 217 troops.
Mosul is now the only major city in the country that the Iraqis do not control, and the Islamic State has not seized any substantial new territory since May 2015. Still, the Iraqis do not seem to be able to stop the Islamic State from launching devastating suicide attacks in Baghdad, including one this month that killed 300 people.
“As ISIL loses territory and the fraud of the caliphate becomes more obvious, they are going to start resorting to more traditional terrorist tactics,” Mr. Obama said in his news conference. “They can’t govern. They can’t deliver anything meaningful to the people whose territory they can control. The one thing they know how to do is kill.”
To help the Iraqis stop the bombings, Mr. Carter said a three-star general in charge of the American military’s task force on improvised explosive devices would be sent to Baghdad to work with the Iraqis.
The general and his staff would bring “that substantial experience and tradecraft that we learned by hard experience in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Mr. Carter said.
American commanders have begun referring to the Qaiyara Airfield West as “Key West” or “Q West” because its Iraqi name is difficult for them to pronounce. As the Iraqi military closed in on the base last week, Islamic State fighters quickly fled and the Iraqis, who lost control of it in 2014, faced little resistance. Iraqi military officials said in interviews on Monday that there was substantial damage to the air base that would require repairs.
“We were surprised by how destroyed the base was and how they had done it in an organized way,” said Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, the commander of Iraqi counterterrorism forces, who planned the operation.
Mr. Assadi said one of two runways at the airfield had been badly damaged, along with some buildings. A small group of American forces surveyed the airfield shortly after the Iraqis seized it, but American military officials said it was still unclear how much time it would take before cargo planes and other aircraft could begin landing there.
The official estimate of 4,647 troops in Iraq understates the actual number of American military personnel in the country. The Pentagon uses a system for counting troops that excludes commandos and those who are supposed to be stationed in the country for less than four months.
All told, Defense Department officials have said there are probably more than 5,000 Americans in Iraq.