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US Announces New Military Approach To Beating ISIS

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Erica Wenig Contributor
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The U.S. is planning to open a new military base and increase the amount of advisers in Iraq’s Anbar province, seeking to oust the Islamic State after jihadis captured provincial capital city Ramadi last month.

Officials say military strategy will focus on Anbar and delay operations to retake Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul, reports The New York Times. The plan has not been formally announced by the White House.

In an email to The Daily Caller News Foundation, Pentagon spokeswoman Cmdr. Elissa Smith said: “We are considering a range of options to accelerate the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces in order to support them in taking the fight to ISIL. Those options include sending additional trainers to Iraq.”

The U.S. will send about 500 military personnel to the area, intending to nearly double the number of battle-ready Iraqi tribesmen. “To assemble a force to retake Ramadi, the number of Iraqi tribal fighters in Anbar that are trained and equipped is expected to be increased from about 5,500 to as many as 10,000,” reports the NYT.

Obama last ordered a troop increase in November, adding 1,500 troops to Iraq. The country now hosts “3,080 U.S. advisers, trainers and support personnel,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

President Barack Obama came under fire for saying the U.S. still doesn’t have a strategy to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq at the G-7 summit earlier this week.

(RELATED: Obama On ISIS: ‘We Do Not Yet Have A Complete Strategy’)

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Tags : iraq isis
Erica Wenig