ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States is contemplating sending more special forces troops to coordinate operations with the Iraqi military ahead of its upcoming operation to retake Mosul from Islamic State (ISIS) militants, a report said. “There is still a tough fight ahead against an adaptive enemy that will try to challenge us as we home in on Mosul and Raqqa,” said Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, the senior air commander for the US-led coalition against ISIS, on Tuesday, according CNN. “The Pentagon is in the preliminary stages of discussing whether to send more Special Operations forces to advise and assist Iraqi forces,” CNN said. US and Iraqi officials are hopeful that the operation to retake Mosul from ISIS can begin before the end of this year. This discussion about sending in US ground forces to assist the offensive to retake Mosul comes after Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s candidate for this year’s US Presidential election, vowed that Washington would never send troops to Iraq again. “We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again,” Clinton said last Thursday, “And we’re not putting ground troops into Syria.” The US currently has an estimated 4,480 soldiers in Iraq, most of which focus on training their Iraqi and Kurdish allies. Other Special Forces advisors have accompanied these forces to the battlefronts to help them effectively fight ISIS. Also in Syria, the US has a smaller number of Special Forces advisors who are assisting Syrian Kurdish forces there. Three US servicemen have been killed by Islamic State (ISIS) since their deployment to Iraq two years ago: The first was killed while participating in a special forces raid, carried out with the Kurdish Peshmerga, to free a hostage from an ISIS prison in Hawija last October. The second was a US Marine who killed by ISIS rocket fire while manning an artillery gun on the Makhmour front in March. And the third was a Navy SEAL who was part of a rapid reaction force who was killed while evacuating US advisors from a Peshmerga front-line position which came under heavy attack from ISIS in early May.
Kurdistan17-06-2026President Barzani, Baghdad governor discuss closer cooperation between Erbil, Baghdad cities
