War on terror
1,000
Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Headed to Iraq
Stars
and Stripes | Dec 19, 2014 | by Jon Harper
WASHINGTON — Approximately 1,000 paratroopers from the Army's famed 82nd Airborne Division will
deploy to Iraq early next year to help the Iraqi security forces take on the
Islamic State, the Pentagon announced Friday.
The soldiers from the 82nd's 3rd Brigade Combat Team,
based at Fort Bragg, N.C., will begin to deploy in late
January to train, advise and assist the ISF, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm.
John Kirby told reporters.
Their mission is part of the coalition effort to build
up the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga so that they can recapture territory
from Islamic State militants.
The paratroopers are preparing for a nine-month
deployment, according to a spokeswoman for the 82nd Airborne.
Approximately 300 troops from other Army, Air Force and Marine Corps units will also
deploy to provide "enabler" support in areas such as
counterintelligence, logistics, and signals, Kirby said.
Last month, President Barack Obama authorized an
additional 1,500 troops to deploy to Iraq to participate in the train, advise
and assist mission. The deployment of elements of the 82nd Airborne is part of
that initiative.
On Thursday, Lt. Gen. James Terry, the commander of
Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, told reporters that other
countries in the coalition are expected to contribute to another 1,500-strong
force for the capacity-building effort.
"The key to success out there will be increasing
the capabilities of Iraqi security forces," Terry said.
Iraqi officials are reportedly eager to go on the
offensive and retake places like Mosul, but the U.S. military believes the ISF
aren't ready.
Terry said the training effort "takes some
patience," and it will take "a minimum of three years" to fully
build the capabilities of Iraqi forces.
U.S. troops already in Iraq are laying the groundwork
for the training program. But on Tuesday, Kirby said it will be "several
months" before the formal training effort gets under way.
The plan is to train nine Iraqi army brigades and
three peshmerga brigades at four training sites throughout Iraq. On Friday,
Kirby declined to identify the location of the sites, saying that force
protection measures are still being put in place. The additional advisers will
be in Anbar province and areas north of Baghdad, according to Kirby.
He said the training and advising will take place at
bases and higher headquarters, not near the front lines of the fighting.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the American military
spent years and billions of dollars training and equipping the ISF to take on
insurgents. Many of those units collapsed in the face of Islamic State attacks.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that about
half of the Iraqi security forces that were in place before the Islamic State
launched its offensives earlier this year, are ineffective.
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