U.S. advisers in Iraq stay out of combat but see fight edge nearer! In Iraq’s western Anbar province, more than 300 U.S. troops are posted at a base in the thick of a pitched battle between Iraqi forces, backed by tribal fighters, and well-armed Islamic State militants. The militants, positioned at a nearby town, have repeatedly hit the base with artillery or rocket fire in recent weeks. Since the middle of December, the U.S.-led military coalition has launched 13 airstrikes around the facility. U.S. troops have suffered no casualties as a result of the attacks. But the violence has underlined the risks to American personnel as they fan out across Iraq as part of President Obama’s expanding mission against the Islamic State, even as he has pledged U.S. operations will not “involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.” In a sign of the risk, military officials said American soldiers have been ferried out to the Ayn al-Asad base under the cover of night by helicopter — partly to maintain a low profile for the renewed U.S. operation in Iraq, but also to protect soldiers amid fierce fighting west of the capital, Baghdad. Under Obama’s plan to aid the Iraqi government, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is expected to grow to around 3,000 from just under 2,000 now. They are deployed not only in Baghdad and the northern city of Irbil, but in recent weeks have been sent to Anbar and training sites flanking the capital. U.S. Central Command released video showing what it says are a series of air strikes on Monday against Islamic State warehouses near Fallujah, Iraq. (Reuters) Overall, they make up a tiny share of the force of over 160,000 that was stationed in Iraq at the height of the 2003-2011 war. But U.S. military officials acknowledge Iraq remains a “dangerous neighborhood in places,” as a spokesman for U.S. Central Command put it. “We are aware of those risks, and we are taking appropriate measures to mitigate them,” said the spokesman, Col. Patrick Ryder. While U.S. commanders have suggested the on-the-ground U.S. activities might expand, troops are now limited to advising local commanders and retraining some of Iraq’s army. They are confined to military headquarters or training bases at four sites. Those sites include al-Asad in Anbar, the largely Sunni province that has been particularly volatile and that provided a foothold for the Islamic State’s rise. Militants now control much of the province, including the city of Fallujah and the town of Hit. If Anbar falls, it would expose Baghdad to even greater risk, allowing militants to more easily traffic reinforcements and weaponry in from neighboring Syria. U.S. and allied warplanes have sought to counter that threat from the air, launching recent strikes against militant positions around al-Asad and other parts of Anbar. Suleiman al-Kubbaisi, a spokesman for Anbar’s provincial council, said Iraqi forces were now battling to reclaim areas around Baghdadi, a town about 10 miles from al-Asad. In the meantime, he said, those areas were being used as launching pads for militants to fire artillery and rockets at the base where Americans are stationed. Sheikh Naeem al-Gaoud, a tribal elder of the Albu Nimr tribe in Anbar, said Islamic State militants were dangerously close the base and to Iraqis who lived nearby. He called for additional airstrikes and American operations to defend Anbar. “There is definitely more activity in this area than there was before,” he said. “If [militants] had the chance, they would attack Ayn al-Asad.” But Jessica Lewis McFate, an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, said militants appeared to be focusing their efforts on ensuring Iraqi forces cannot use the base to block their attempts to capture other, more strategic parts of Anbar. Al-Asad lies between areas under Islamic State control, into which the group will eventually have to press if it will be able to conquer the province. Militants are still fighting for Ramadi, another important city. Iraqi forces have so far been able to defend other strategic areas, such as the Haditha dam. The militants’ goal is “not necessarily to try to overrun the base, but to try to pin forces in that fight,” Lewis McFate said. A U.S. defense official said artillery or rocket attacks on al-Asad had been “very sporadic and ineffective.” U.S. and Iraqi officials said many landed outside the base. Islamic State fighters are also contesting the area around Taji, a district north of Baghdad where other U.S. military advisers are stationed. Such attacks are far from unusual in Iraq. They were a daily occurrence for much of the 2003-2011 war, as militants rained projectiles on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone and military bases across the country. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, said this fall he expected the Islamic State would also launch such indirect attacks on Baghdad. In order to minimize such risks, security is being enhanced at the other training locations where U.S. and allied troops will be stationed, the official said. Iraqi forces will provide security at the training sites, which also include facilities north and south of the capital. Much of Iraq’s military collapsed in June when soldiers abandoned their posts to escape the Islamic State advance. Some Iraqi troops fled another Anbar base earlier this fall during an Islamic State assault. Cunningham reported from Baghdad. washingtonpost/world/national-security/us-advisers-in-iraq-stay-out-of-combat-but-see-fight-edge-nearer/2015/01/01/6da57c3a-9038-11e4-ba53-a477d66580ed_story.html
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 20:43:16 +0000
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