According to the Associated Press, most of the additional troops will be US Army Special Forces.
The US defense officials said that the US will deploy 217 troops and Apache helicopters to Iraq as part of operations against jihadist group ISIS.
According to the Associated Press, most of the additional troops will be US Army Special Forces and the rest will include teams of trainers and advisers to be embedded with Iraqi security forces fighting Islamic State, meaning US advisers will be stationed near the battlefront as Iraqi units move toward Mosul.
On April 16, the US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter indicated that the US military will boost its operations against ISIS.
“You should expect us, to see us, doing more,” Carter said, according to the New York Times. “It will be consistent with the same approach, but it’ll be across all the domains, right up to cyber.”
However, the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve had conducted a total of 11,539 airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq and Syria. Of that total, the US has conducted 8,825 of the strikes, according to the Pentagon.
Since June 2014, Iraq has been observing ISIS terrorist activities. The US-led coalition started its operations allegedly hitting ISIS, although many believe ISIS is a creation of the west.
However, the 66-member coalition has been failing to control ISIS terrorism, when a concerted push by Iraqi forces are dealing terrorists and forcing it out of the central city of Ramadi, the capital of the western Anbar Province.
