BAGHDAD: The United States will send Apache attack helicopters and more troops to Iraq, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in Baghdad Monday, as the coalition weighs retaking second city Mosul from the Islamic State group.
President Barack Obama hailed the 2011 withdrawal of American troops from Iraq as a major accomplishment of his presidency, but the US has been steadily drawn back into the country since IS militants overran swathes of territory in 2014.
Washington heads an international coalition that is carrying out strikes against IS and also providing training and other assistance to forces fighting the militants in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
"We are going to bring in additional forces," Carter said after arriving in Baghdad on an unannounced visit.
Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told reporters an additional 217 personnel would be deployed, bringing the official number of US troops in Iraq to 4,087.
Troops will also be authorised to advise Iraqis at the battalion and brigade level as opposed to the larger divisions, potentially exposing them to greater risks closer to the front lines.
Carter also said that the Apaches -- which can respond "quickly" and "dynamically" when needed -- will support Iraqi efforts to surround and eventually recapture Mosul from IS.
"They are being offered for the move on Mosul. It will be at the government of Iraq's discretion as to whether or not they are deployed," Davis said of the Apaches.
General Sean MacFarland, commander of the US-led operation against IS, later told reporters travelling with Carter that the US had not ruled out sending further troops at a later stage if the current boost proves insufficient.
"If the conditions are sufficiently favourable for us to go in and liberate the city (Mosul) with the forces that we have in hand, great. If they prove to be insufficient, that will be another assessment that we will make (about additional forces)," he said.
During his visit, Carter also pledged $415 million in assistance for the peshmerga forces of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, which are fighting IS in the north.
The region has, like Baghdad, been hit by financial difficulties from low oil prices.
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