US weighs more Iraq training sites but no strategy overhaul

US President Barack Obama is considering expanding the number of training sites for Iraqi forces to bolster the battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), US military officials said on June 9, which  could mean deploying hundreds more US forces in Iraq. 

The proposed build-up follows only sporadic successes in the  months-long US-backed Iraqi drive to push back ISIL, a drive that suffered a severe setback with the fall of the Anbar provincial capital Ramadi last month. 

Since the loss of the city, which drew harsh US criticism of the Iraqi military performance, Washington has begun to speed up supplies of weapons to the government forces and examine ways to improve the training program. 

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made clear during a visit to Jerusalem that there were no plans to fundamentally alter Obama's military strategy that has so far kept US ground troops off the front lines. 

"We've made some recommendations on potential enhancements to the training and equip mission," Dempsey said, citing options including new training sites. 

Speaking to reporters traveling with him, Dempsey did not say how many extra US troops may be involved. Another senior US military official said only that the number would be modest and a third said it could mean hundreds of additional troops. 

Dempsey said the US military was working on how such a program would work, including what strain it might put on Pentagon resources and troops already devoted to other missions. 
 
Maintaining US strategy 

With the effort in Iraq under fire, Obama said on June 8 the United States did not yet have a "complete strategy" for training Iraqi security forces to reconquer land...