Deja vu for US troops celebrating Christmas in Iraq again

This is the third Christmas that Staff Sergeant Magdiel Asencio is spending in Iraq. For Sergeant First Class Noel Alvarado, it is number four. And so it is with many US troops stationed less than a hour's drive from the front line with Islamic State. Few thought they would be back nearly 14 years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, sparking an al Qaeda-backed insurgency and throwing the country into a sectarian civil war.
Yet here they are, albeit with a fraction of the numbers and a much narrower mission. The roughly 5,200 U.S. troops presently stationed in Iraq are part of an international coalition helping local forces retake the third of their country seized by Islamic State more than 2-1/2 years ago.
Their current target is Mosul, the jihadists' last major stronghold in the country. Iraqi forces control around a quarter of the city, but fierce counter-attacks have rendered progress slow and punishing.
Asencio served in Mosul during the initial invasion, first to provide artillery support and then as infantry.
"It was more of a wild wild west then. We didn't know if something was going to go down and when they needed you to call for fires," he said, standing beside a field artillery unit that hits Islamic State targets inside Mosul nearly every day.
"It's a little more calm this time around. We still shoot, we know we're here in support of the Iraqi army. There's still enemy out there but we're not as into actual direct combat as we were back then."
Many battalion commanders previously served multiple tours in Iraq, often punctuated by combat in Afghanistan. There are even some soldiers in their first tour here whose fathers missed Christmases with them a decade ago to be in Iraq.
"I thought back in 2011 when we closed it all out, it was going to be finalised then," said Alvarado, referring to the withdrawal of U.S. troops that year.
"But being back here is totally different. I've seen (the Iraqi army) pick themselves up a lot. They have a better standard now." The Iraqi military and police dropped their weapons and fled in 2014 in the face of Islamic State's assault, despite far superior numbers and billions of dollars in U.S.