US to Deploy Hundreds of Fresh Marines to Iraq
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The US announced on Sunday it will put more troops on the ground in Iraq after a Marine was killed in a Daesh rocket barrage.
Troops from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit will add to American forces already in Iraq battling the Daesh (ISIL), the Pentagon said, the Al Jazeera reported.
It was unclear exactly how many Marines would be deployed, but the move was made to bolster security at a coalition base near Makhmur on the frontlines with Daesh in northern Iraq.
A US Marine was killed in a Daesh rocket attack at the base on Saturday, the Pentagon said, the second American combat death in the fight against the group.
The rocket barrage occurred in the autonomous Kurdish region, where Baghdad has recently been deploying forces to prepare for an offensive against Daesh-controlled Mosul.
"Several other Marines were wounded and they are being treated for their varying injuries," the Pentagon said in a statement.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey said the troop deployment was a direct response to the Marine's death.
"We're told now by sources in the Pentagon that this deployment was sped up to respond to that attack, that this is a unit that is providing security for forces in this area," Saloomey reported.
"This base is also considered to be very important in the coming months, as it is expected to become the base of operations for a possible ground offensive to retake Mosul."
Michael Pregent, a Middle East analyst and former US intelligence officer, said "force protection" is paramount for Washington after Saturday's death and the killing of a US Special Forces soldier in 2015 who was involved in an anti-Daesh operation.
"The deployment also talks to the need to have more US advisers and special operators on the ground with the Iraqi security forces to fight Daesh," Pregent told Al Jazeera.
Since June 10, 2014, Iraq has witnessed a fresh wave of violence after militants from the Daesh terrorist group took control of large swathes of the war-stricken country.
Syria has also been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with Takfiri terrorists from various groups, including the Daesh, currently controlling parts of it.
