Amid persistent setbacks in the fight against the Islamic State, President Barack Obama turned his military’s focus to the Sunni-Shiite divide, ordering hundreds of troops to Iraq to better integrate Iraqi forces and lay the groundwork to retake Ramadi and other key cities.
The expanded military campaign will set up a new base in Anbar province to advise Iraqi forces on how to plan and organise operations and help them reach out to Sunni tribes and bring them into the battle. However, it leaves out any move to send US forces closer to the front lines, either to call in airstrikes or advise smaller battlefront units, underscoring Mr. Obama’s reluctance to plunge the military deeper into war and risk more deaths.
Under the plan announced on Wednesday, up to 450 more American troops will deploy to Iraq in the next six to eight weeks and set up a fifth training site al-Taqaddum, a desert air base that was a US military hub during the 2003-2011 war. The site will be dedicated to helping the Iraqi Army integrate Sunni tribes into the fight, an element which is crucial in driving the Islamic State out of the Sunni-majority areas of western Iraq.
The expanded effort will also include expediting the delivery of US equipment and arms to Iraq, including directly to troops at al-Taqaddum, under the authority of the government in Baghdad.
The US is insistent that the Americans will not have a combat role, but they may venture out of the base in order to help identify and recruit Sunni tribes. About a quarter of the new troops will be advisers, and the remainder will handle security, logistics and other administrative tasks.
Mr. Obama this week lamented that the US lacks a “complete strategy” for defeating the Islamic State, and officials pointed to a glaring lack of recruits among Sunnis. The administration insisted that the plan is not a change in the US strategy, but instead said it addresses that Sunni recruitment failure.
