The US military is preparing to establish a new Special Operations task force in Iraq, Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said, as the Obama Administration seeks to intensify pressure on Isis commanders and expand US troops' direct involvement in battling the militant group.
The decision to post a specialised military unit of about 200 service members in Iraq marks an important shift in US operations there, where US troops have previously been limited largely to advising local forces.
Carter announced the move in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, saying the new force would enable the US military to launch additional raids and increase intelligence collection, both in Iraq and Syria.
"We're good at intelligence; we're good at mobility; we're good at surprise. We have the long reach that no one else has. It puts everybody on notice in Syria that you don't know at night who is going to be coming in the window. And that's the sensation that we want all of Isis' leadership and followers to have."
Carter said that European allies should "step up" in the fight against Isis. His call came as Germany announced it is to deploy 1200 military personnel to support air strikes against Isis.
German Tornado fighters will undertake reconnaissance flights for French air strikes, while a German naval frigate will provide protection for the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. Its personnel are not expected to take part directly in combat missions.
Several US officials said the new force was expected to be stationed near Irbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region.
Officials said the team may include at least 200 Special Operations forces, known as "operators," as well as support troops focusing on intelligence, planning, and the operation and maintenance of equipment.
Isis has managed to hold on to most of the territory it controlled in the northern summer of 2014. US officials say that a handful of raids on Isis facilities over the past year have yielded important intelligence about the group's structure, financing and tactics.
Unlike those raids, which were conducted by US forces based outside of Iraq and Syria, the new task force will provide a more established operation for planning and conducting such actions, closer to the action, exposing them to additional risks on the ground.
"You have people on the ground who can take prisoners . . . gather hard drives and use that to exploit intelligence," one official said. Such intelligence could be used to inform future raids or to intensify airstrikes, which critics have said have taken place too sparingly to decisively weaken the group.
Officials also hope the creation of the task force will cut down on the lag between the identification of important intelligence and when an operation can begin.
There are now about 3500 US troops in Iraq, including some Special Operations forces who are advising Iraqi forces. But for the most part, US forces are helping Iraqis plan operations and rebuilding their army.
"What's different is that you can get quite a bit more information when you put more boots on the ground, either by capturing leaders or by doing site exploitation," said Paul Scharre, a former Army Ranger and Pentagon official now at the Centre for a New American Security, a Washington think-tank.
"This is a playbook that US Special Operations Command has perfected over the last 15 years." The Pentagon is also preparing to deploy roughly 50 Special Operations forces into northern Syria, for the first time stationing US forces there.
- Bloomberg, Telegraph Group Ltd
Tornado fighters
• British fighters involved in airstrikes against Isis in Iraq for the past year.
• Tornado jointly developed in the 1970s by the UK, Germany and Italy
• Intended to combat Warsaw Pact threats during the Cold War.
• 228 Tornados entered service in 1980. Upgrades since then.
• Twin-engined able to fly low, day or night, in poor weather.
- Telegraph
