US Sending More Weapons, Advisers to Iraq without Change in Strategy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that the United States will be sending hundreds more advisers along with mobile rocket launchers and Apache gunship helicopters to back up the Iraqi drive against the Mosul stronghold of Daesh.
"These are capabilities that will continue the process of accelerating the defeat of ISIL" Carter said on Monday evening, Sputnik News reported.
"We are going to accelerate this campaign every time we find an opportunity to do so."
Carter confirmed that at least 200 more US troops would be sent as "advisers" to the Iraqi Security Forces.
But, Carter insisted that the moves did not signal any change in the Obama administration’s strategy to defeat the Daesh.
"I am very comfortable that our operational approach is the right one. In the end, Iraqi forces have to do the defeating, sustain the defeat. We can help them, we can't substitute for them we're not looking to," Carter explained.
According to other US media reports, eight Apache ground-support helicopters would be sent to support the Iraqi Security Forces drive on Mosul, which Carter described as the "parent tumor" of Daesh in the Middle East.
