WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time in the year-plus fight against Islamic State militants, the U.S. is putting American combat troops on the ground in a more permanent role in Iraq and Syria.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told Congress on Tuesday that the U.S. military will deploy a new special operations force to Iraq to step up the fight against IS militants, who are unleashing violence and are determined to hold territory they have seized in Iraq and Syria. President Barack Obama previously announced he was sending fewer than 50 special operations forces to Syria.
CAMBRIDGE – Grappling with violent extremism will be a key challenge facing Americans for generations to come, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said at the Harvard Kennedy School Tuesday, hours after telling a congressional committee that more special forces were being deployed in Iraq to fight Islamic State.
The special operations troops will fight with the Iraqi military and have the capability to launch unilateral strikes into Syria, Carter said at a hearing of the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives. He characterized the increase as a component of the Pentagon's heightened efforts to battle Islamic State forces, calling the terrorist organization by an acronym, ISIL.
