U.S. Adding Military Advisers in Iraq to Reclaim Ramadi, Officials Say

WASHINGTON - June 10, 2015 — In a major shift of strategy in Iraq, the Obama administration is planning to establish a new military base in Anbar Province and send hundreds of additional American military trainers to help Iraqi forces retake the city of Ramadi and repel the Islamic State.

Although a final decision by the White House has yet to be announced, the plan follows months of behind-the-scenes debate about what strategy the American-led coalition should pursue in Iraq. It represents a detour from longstanding plans to recapture Mosul this year. Mosul is the capital of Nineveh Province in northern Iraq, which was taken by Islamic State militants last year.
But the fall of Ramadi to the Islamic State last month effectively settled the administration debate, at least for the time being. American officials said Anbar is now expected to become the focus of a long campaign that will seek to regain Mosul at a later stage, probably not until 2016.
The plans call for an expanded American presence at Taqaddum, an Iraqi base near the town of Habbaniya, the center of Iraq military’s operations in Anbar Province. Officials said about 400 advisers could be sent to Iraq.
State Department officials have long highlighted the strategic importance of Anbar, which is home to many of Iraq’s Sunni tribes and borders Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, is less than 70 miles from Baghdad.
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.
More than 3,000 new Iraqi soldiers are to be recruited to fill the ranks of the Seventh Iraqi Army division in Anbar and the Eighth Iraqi Army at Habbaniya.
But to the frustration of critics like Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican, who say that United States is losing the initiative to the Islamic State militant group, the Obama administration has not approved the use of American spotters on the battlefield to call in airstrikes. Nor has it approved the use of select American Special Operations Forces or Apache helicopter gunships to help Iraqi troops retake Ramadi.
American officials said that an American team was being sent to survey Taqaddum.
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, alluded to the plan during a visit to Israel on Tuesday, saying he had asked war commanders to look into expanding the number of training sites for Iraqi forces. Speaking to a small group of reporters, General Dempsey said a decision had not been made on whether that would make additional American troops necessary.