CBS News: Obama Admin. to Add More Troops to Train Iraqis

‘The new plan calls for hundredths of new military advisers’

GLOR: “The Obama administration is retooling its strategy in the fight against ISIS in Iraq. The new plan calls for hundreds of new military advisers and another base to train Iraqi troops. The goal is to retake Ramadi and drive the extremists from Anbar province. Major Garrett is at the White House with this new approach. Major, good morning.”

GARRETT: Good morning. President Obama intends to send hundreds more U.S. military advisers into Iraq into the western section known as Anbar province. That’s where ISIS terrorists have made recent and unnerving military gains. Now, the plans which could be unveiled officially as early as today call for sending upwards of 500 more advisers to augment the 3,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now. All the U.S. troops would remain under the same strict military guidelines. No front line advising or intelligence gathering this to minimize the risk of combat deaths or capture. The president raised the need for quicker training of Iraqi forces at G-7 summit earlier this week in the Bavarian Alps. The president said Iraq must provide more recruits and use the 8,000 U.S.-trained forces more effectively to reverse ISIS gains and the Sunni strongholds of Ramadi and Fallujah. The president raised these issues with the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi in a meeting on the summit sidelines. President also said this emerging new retooled strategy needs to stop the flow of fighters into Iraq. And there are new efforts to begin there and to focus on the Turkish/Syrian border. The idea is to use Kurdish forces and more tightly coordinated U.S. air strikes to stop ISIS fighters from joining the combat.”

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