First US Military Advisers Start Operating in Iraq: Pentagon

Local Editor

The first teams of up to 300 US military advisers began their "mission" in Baghdad in order to "assist" the Iraqi army in its fight against extremists, according to the Pentagon on Tuesday.

US Admiral John Kirby told reporters that, "We have begun to deploy initial assessment teams" and two teams of about 40 troops "have started their new ‘mission.'"

The first two teams were drawn from the US embassy in Iraq, and an additional 90 troops had arrived to set up a joint operations center in Baghdad, Kirby said.
Another 50 troops were due to deploy in the next few days, he added.

According to him, he added: "These teams will assess the cohesiveness and readiness of Iraqi security forces, hire headquarters in Baghdad, and examine the most effective and efficient way to introduce follow-on advisers."

The advisers would relay their findings to commanders within "the next two or three weeks," he said.

Last Thursday, US President Barack Obama said he was ready to send up to 300 military advisors to Iraq to, according to him, help the Iraqi military fend off the militant threat. However, he will only deploy "precise military actions."

They are to focus first on helping Iraqi troops secure Baghdad, starting with the perimeter around Baghdad "and making sure that that's not overrun," according to Obama.
A second joint operation center is to be set up in northern Iraq.

Obama insisted that the presence of advisors would not be a signal of return to combat in Iraq, and his administration was careful to refer to the military personnel as advisors, not troops.

However, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi raised concerns about even a small military mission to Iraq, warning that numbers have "a tendency to grow."

Obama further warned that the growing prospects of civil war in Iraq pose the danger of a humanitarian crisis, destabilization "throughout the region" and disruption of important "energy and global energy markets" that the US is committed to protecting, according to him.

Sources: News Agencies, Edited by website team