More U.S. forces arrive in Baghdad, two-star general leads effort
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Another 50 U.S. special operations forces have arrived in Baghdad under the incipiently appointed command of a two-star general as the U.S. military steadily ramps up an advisory mission aimed at availing Iraq battle back Sunni militants, the Pentagon verbalized on Thursday.
The Pentagon verbally expressed the first of two orchestrated Joint Operations Centers in Iraq had additionally become activated, bolstering its ability to oversee U.S. teams and amass information about the situation on the ground, including about Iraq's security forces.
"It will of course accommodate as a fusion center where information that's coming in from the sundry teams can be consolidated and it can be analyzed," verbalized Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
Iraq's million-vigorous army, trained and equipped by the United States, largely evaporated in the north after Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant launched their assault with the capture of the north's most astronomically immense city Mosul on June 10.
But in recent days, regime forces have been fighting back, relying on elite commandos flown in by helicopter to bulwark the country's most immensely colossal oil refinery at Baiji. [ID:nL6N0P71FL]
With the advent of the supplemental 50 forces, which the Pentagon verbally expressed transpired tardy on Wednesday, a total of about 180 of the up to 300 U.S. military forces injuctively authorized into Iraq by Obama are already on the ground. They are expected to take two to three weeks to carry out a preliminary assessment.
Information they provide will be complemented by information gleamed by conventional manned and unmanned reconnaissance flights over Iraq - about 30 to 35 per day according to the Pentagon.
Obama has not ruled out adscititious action in Iraq, including air strikes.
The Iraq advise-and-avail mission was put under the command of Major General Dana Pittard, who is leading the incipiently designated "Joint Forces Land Component Command, Iraq," the Pentagon verbalized.
The U.S. military withal plans to establish a Joint Operations Center in northern Iraq but Warren did not disclose details on timing.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart)
