US to send around 600 more troops to Iraq for Mosul offensive

The United States will send about 600 extra troops to Iraq to train local forces for an offensive on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stronghold of Mosul, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Sept. 28.
ISIL seized Mosul along with other areas in June 2014, but the country's forces have since regained significant ground from the jihadists and are readying for a drive to retake Iraq's second-largest city.

"These [U.S.] forces will be primarily to enable Iraqi security forces, and also peshmerga, in the operations to isolate and collapse ISIL's control over Mosul," Carter told reporters on a work trip to New Mexico. Peshmerga are Kurdish fighters.

"Also to protect and expand Iraqi security forces' gains elsewhere in Iraq," he added.

The U.S. forces will head to Qayyarah, a strategically vital air base 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Mosul that will help funnel supplies and troops toward the city, as well as to other locations including the joint Iraqi-U.S. Al Asad air base. 

They notably will beef up flight capabilities at Al Asad for night operations and operations in low visibility, such as poor weather.

A U.S.-led coalition is carrying out air strikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria, and Washington has already authorized the deployment of more than 4,600 military personnel to Iraq.

Most are in advisory or training roles, working with Iraqi and peshmerga forces, but some American troops have fought ISIL on the ground, and three members of the U.S. military have been killed by the jihadists in Iraq.

Earlier on Sept. 28, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office indicated it had requested "a final increase in the number of American trainers and advisers" to support Iraqi troops...