White House said Monday that President Obama followed his general’s recommendations when he decided to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq, and send Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State.
“The president’s instructions to his national security team have consistently been to look for opportunities to reinforce those elements of our campaign that are showing some progress,” Presidential press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters during his daily briefing.
The announcements that Defense Secretary Ash Carter made Monday about the latest addition of U.S. troops and equipment, Earnest said, are consistent “with the recommendations that the president received from his military advisers.”
Earnest also stressed that the U.S. military is working closely with the Iraqi government and its forces to determine the additional assistance needed to fight the Islamic State.
“What the United States has sought to do at every turn is to support our partners in Iraq as they implement a political strategy to unite the country but also as they carry out a military strategy to drive ISIL out of those areas of Iraq where they have encroached,” he said, referring to the Islamic State by another common acronym.
The boost in U.S. troop levels in Iraq comes as Iraqi forces attempt to retake the key city of Mosul and the U.S.-led coalition hopes to help rebels retake Raqqa in Syria.
The deployment of 217 more troops brings the authorized number of U.S. forces in Iraq to 4,087 from the previous 3,870. It marks the first significant increase in U.S forces in nearly a year.
Most of the new troops will be Army special forces, who have been serving as advisers to the Iraqi Army.
