By LARA JAKES and MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. is urgently deploying several hundred
armed troops in and around Iraq and considering sending an additional
contingent of special forces soldiers as Baghdad struggles to repel a
rampant insurgency, even as the White House insists anew that America
will not be dragged into another war.
President Barack Obama notified Congress Monday that up to 275 troops
could be sent to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S.
personnel and the American Embassy in Baghdad. About 170 of those forces
have already arrived and another 100 soldiers be on standby in a nearby
country until they are needed, a U.S. official said.
While Obama has vowed to keep U.S. forces out of combat in Iraq, he
said in his notification to Congress that the personnel moving into the
region are equipped for direct fighting.
And separately, three U.S. officials said the White House was
considering sending a contingent of special forces soldiers to Iraq.
Their limited mission - which has not yet been approved - would focus on
training and advising beleaguered Iraqi troops, many of whom have fled
their posts across the nation's north and west as the al-Qaida-inspired
insurgency has advanced in the worst threat to the country since
American troops left in 2011.
The moves come at the White House wrestles with an array of options
for helping Iraq repel a Sunni Muslim insurgency that has captured large
swaths of territory collaring Baghdad, the capital of the Shiite-led
government. In a rare move, U.S. officials reached out to Iran Monday to
discuss ways the long-time foes might help stop the militants known as
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The conversations took place on the sidelines of separate nuclear
negotiations taking place in Vienna, Austria. U.S. officials quickly
tamped down speculation that the discussion might include military
coordination or consultation, though Secretary of State John Kerry said
in an interview with Yahoo! News that the U.S. would "not rule out
anything that would be constructive."
Kerry stressed that any contacts with Iran would move "step-by-step."
Taken together, the developments suggest a willingness by Obama to
send Americans into a collapsing security situation in order to quell
the brutal fighting in Iraq before it morphs into outright war.
The White House said the forces authorized for support and security
will assist with the temporary relocation of some staff from the Baghdad
embassy. The forces are entering Iraq with the consent of that
country's government, the White House said.
Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said the troops on
standby could "provide airfield management, security, and logistics
support, if required." They could work with embassy security teams or
operate as a stand-alone force as directed.
Officials would not say where the soldiers would be on standby, but
It is likely they would be in Kuwait, which was a major basing ground
for U.S. troops during the Iraq war.
If the U.S. were to deploy an additional team of special forces, the
mission would almost certainly be small. One U.S. official said it could
be up to 100 special forces soldiers. It also could be authorized only
as an advising and training mission - meaning the soldiers would work
closely with Iraqi forces that are fighting the insurgency but would not
officially be considered as combat troops.
It's not clear how quickly the special forces could arrive in Iraq.
It's also unknown whether they would remain in Baghdad or be sent to the
nation's north, where the Sunni Muslim insurgency has captured large
swaths of territory collaring Baghdad, the capital of the Shiite-led
government.
The troops would fall under the authority of the U.S. ambassador in
Baghdad and would not be authorized to engage in combat, another U.S.
official said. Their mission would be "non-operational training" of both
regular and counter terrorism units, which the military has in the past
interpreted to mean training on military bases, the official said.
However, all U.S. troops are allowed to defend themselves in Iraq if
they are under attack. Already, about 100 Marines and Army soldiers have
been sent to Baghdad to help with embassy security, according to a U.S.
official.
The three U.S. officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because
they were not authorized to publicly discuss the plans by name.
Obama made the end of the war in Iraq one of his signature campaign
issues, and has touted the U.S. military withdrawal in December 2011 as
one of his top foreign policy successes. But he has been caught over the
past week between Iraqi officials pleading for help - as well as
Republicans blaming him for the loss of a decade's worth of gains in
Iraq - and his anti-war Democratic political base, which is demanding
that the U.S. stay out of the fight.
While the White House continues to review its options, Iran's military leaders are starting to step into the beach.
The commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, was
in Iraq on Monday and consulting with the government there on how to
stave off insurgents' gains. Iraqi security officials said the U.S.
government was notified in advance of the visit by Soleimani, whose
forces are a secretive branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard that in the
past has organized Shiite militias to target U.S. troops in Iraq and,
more recently, was involved in helping Syria's President Bashar Assad in
his fight against Sunni rebels.
In the short term, the U.S. and Iran both want the Shiite-led
government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stabilized and the
Sunni-led insurgency stopped. But in the long run, the United States
would like to see an inclusive, representative democracy take hold in
Iraq, while predominantly Shiite Iran is more focused on protecting
Iraq's Shiite population and bolstering its own position as a regional
power against powerful Sunni Arab states in the Gulf.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said any discussion with Iran
would concern ways that Iran could help press al-Maliki's government to
be more inclusive and treat all of Iraq's religious and ethnic groups
equally.
Any talks with Iran "would be to discuss the political component here
and our interest in encouraging Iraqi leaders to act in a responsible,
nonsectarian way," she told reporters. "Certainly a discussion of that
is something that we would be open to."
