WASHINGTON—US president Barack Obama has authorized the deployment of 1,500 military personnel to advise and train Iraqi and Kurdish forces, said a Pentagon statement on Friday.
“The commander in chief has authorized Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to deploy to Iraq up to 1,500 additional U.S. personnel over the coming months, in a non-combat role, to expand our advise and assist mission and initiate a comprehensive training effort for Iraqi forces,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby.
According to the Pentagon, the US troops were requested by the Iraqi government.
“[Defense] Secretary Hagel made this recommendation to President Obama based on the request of the Government of Iraq, U.S. Central Command's assessment of Iraqi units,” said Kirby.
The US currently has 1,400 military advisors in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, helping with intelligence gathering and airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) which took over Mosul and most of Iraq’s Sunni heartland in the summer.
The statement said that deployment of the new non-combat force in Iraq will include establishing two “expeditionary advise and assist operations centers,” outside Baghdad and Erbil.
“U.S. Central Command will establish several sites across Iraq that will accommodate the training of 12 Iraqi brigades, specifically nine Iraqi army and three Peshmerga brigades. These sites will be located in northern, western, and southern Iraq,” read Kirby’s statement.
The US air force has been instrumental in pushing back IS militants in northwestern Iraq and in the city of Kobane, with Kurdish forces leading the fight on the ground.
The funding for the training will be provided by the Iraqi and US governments.
On Friday, Obama met CENTCOM Commander Gen. Lloyd Austin and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the White House who briefed a bipartisan congressional group on the IS Strategy.
