Washington ٍٍSends 300 Troops To Iraq. Baghdad Joint Operations Center Starts Working

Washington / NINA / The U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) announced that 300 additional soldiers were sent to Iraq in addition to a group of helicopters and drones. Pentagon spokesman Admiral, John Kirby said that "about 200 soldiers arrived on Sunday to Iraq to bolster security at the U.S. Embassy and its facilities and the Baghdad International Airport." He said that " 100 other soldiers are heading to Baghdad to provide security and logistical support." Kirby said in a statement that these forces are independent and separate from the 300 soldiers whom the President has decided to send them to set up two joint operations and make an assessment for how the United States could provide additional support to the Iraqi security forces. " A U.S. military official was quoted as saying that "these moves are focused on the protection of the Americans in Iraq, including civilians, and it's not for (standby) for air strikes." The official said, "I think that there is an appropriate amount of attention on the airport, noting that the airport is vital institution for transport. For his part, another U.S. official who asked not to be named, said the United States is also considering the establishment of a new joint military operations center in the northwestern region of Iraqi Kurdistan. While not immediately clear whether U.S. soldiers in joint operations center will work primarily with new Kurdish Peshmerga forces that protect the long-standing Kurdish enclave or whether they will cooperate with the forces of the Iraqi army under the command of Baghdad. In the same context, spokesman for the Pentagon, Colonel Stephen Warren announced the start of work in the Baghdad joint operations center between U.S. advisors and Iraqi security forces. Warren said that "six teams of advisers who were sent by President Barack Obama began work in evaluating the performance of Iraqi army units in and around Baghdad." Warren said that the U.S. "supply the Iraqis with information that would be useful to them in their war against ISIS." He continued: "We are still in the evaluation stage now and what we do is to collect the information provided by the six teams that are collected and submitted to the Iraqis." The U.S spokesman noted that "the Americans advisors are trained very well to work in the security environment, such as that currently taking place in Iraq." The United States sent 300 military adviser to Iraq on the basis of the decision of President Barack Obama in order to take care of the establishment of two joint operations, where there are already 180 of these advisers in Iraq. / End