US sends 1st delegation to Anbar to survey support sites

Source: Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — As a prelude to a U.S. advisory mission in western Iraq, about 50 U.S. troops are visiting the Al Asad Air Base in Anbar province, Pentagon officials said Monday, to survey it as a potential base for a mission to support Iraqi forces against Islamic State insurgents.

One of the largest U.S. air bases during the 2003 to 2011 war in Iraq, Al Asad could again see use by American troops as one of two “train, advise, assist sites” the Pentagon says will be built when 1,500 additional U.S. advisers deploy to Iraq in coming months. The deployment authorized by President Barack Obama will roughly double the number of U.S. troops deployed in noncombat roles in Iraq.

“I don’t want to get into exact locations (of the bases) because we’re still doing site surveys of that, but one will be in Anbar province and one probably in the Baghdad province,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Friday.

In October, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said the advisory mission should be expanded into the broad reaches of the Anbar province, where Islamic State insurgents have made gains in the months since the United States began airstrikes against the group in early August.

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