US allies to send about 1,500 troops to Iraq

KUWAIT CITY: US allies have committed to send about 1,500 forces to Iraq to help train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers battling the Islamic State, which increasingly appears on the defensive, the top US commander guiding the coalition effort said on Monday.

Lieutenant General James Terry, commander of Operation Inherent Resolve targetting the militants in Iraq and Syria, said the forces would come on top of the up to 3,100 troops US President Barack Obama has authorized to deploy to Iraq.

The allies’ commitments were made during a conference among coalition members on Dec 2-3.

“When you start now to balance the different capabilities out across the coalition, I think we’re doing pretty well in terms of boots on the ground,” Terry told reporters travelling with Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel in Kuwait.

Since Islamic State’s June offensive, the militants have had little success breaking beyond the solidly Sunni Muslim provinces of Anbar in the west and Salahuddin north of Baghdad, as well as the strongly Sunni province of Nineveh, home to the city of Mosul which the Islamists overran in June.