US ready to send advisers, helicopters to help retake Iraq city

WASHINGTON — The United States is prepared to deploy advisers and attack helicopters if requested by Iraq to help it "finish the job" of retaking the city of Ramadi from the Daesh terror group, US Defence Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday.

Carter's remarks were the latest sign of US preparations to intensify its military campaign against the group, which controls wide swathes of Iraq and Syria and has orchestrated and inspired attacks abroad.

Daesh captured Ramadi, a provincial capital just a short drive west of Baghdad, in May in its biggest conquest since last year, and retaking it would be a major victory for Iraq's Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi.

Carter, speaking at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, said it has taken a "frustratingly long time" for Iraqi security forces to claw back territory.

But he pointed to significant gains, including recapturing the Anbar Operations Centre on the northern bank of the Euphrates River in the past 24 hours.

“The United States is prepared to assist the Iraqi Army with additional unique capabilities to help them finish the job, including attack helicopters and accompanying advisers, if circumstances dictate and if requested by Prime Minister Abadi,” Carter said.

A US defence official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the US advisers would be prepared to help the Iraqi security forces by providing advice on how to move through the centre of Ramadi over the next several weeks.

For President Barack Obama, who has spent much of his time in office pulling US troops out of wars he inherited and who is deeply averse to being dragged into another Middle East ground war, deployment of advisers and use of attack helicopters are both examples of an increased willingness to expose US troops to risk.

Reuters has previously reported on the possible deployment of Apache attack helicopters, and US forces to operate them, to bolster Iraq’s fight against the group.

Obama is under mounting pressure to escalate America’s military role in Iraq and Syria, particularly after the November 13 assaults in Paris that killed 130 people, claimed by Daesh, and last week’s paramilitary-style attack in California by a couple believed by authorities to have been inspired by Islamist militancy.

“These attacks make it clear that ISIL’s [Daesh’s] threat against our homeland is real, direct, and growing, that we are not winning this war and that time is not on our side,” said Senator John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate committee.

The United States last week announced plans to deploy elite American military teams to Iraq to conduct raids against Daesh there and in neighbouring Syria. That followed an October announcement that it would send dozens of special operations forces to Syria to coordinate with local rebels.

Carter told the Senate hearing that he was in touch with coalition partners to ask them to contribute special operations forces. The United States also sought other capabilities, like strike and spy aircraft, weapons and munitions.