Small Wars Journal

Pentagon Still Deciding Whether American Troops Will Enter Mosul

Mon, 11/07/2016 - 6:58pm

Pentagon Still Deciding Whether American Troops Will Enter Mosul by Corey Dickstein, Stars & Stripes

The Pentagon will likely have to decide in the coming days whether American troops will enter Mosul, as Iraqi forces near the Islamic State-held city from the south and push into its eastern-most neighborhoods.

“We’ve had forces provide advice and assistance, and in some cases accompany, Iraqi security forces, Kurdish peshmerga and [Counter Terrorism Service troops] up to this point,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters Monday at the Pentagon. “And a decision going forward as to how much farther (American troops) go will be something determined by commanders working with the Iraqis.”

The vast majority of the nearly 5,000 American troops serving in Iraq remain on bases far from Mosul, where they are training Iraqi forces. But the United States has the authority to embed military troops into Iraqi and peshmerga battalions and brigades.

Iraqi forces have pushed into neighborhoods in eastern Mosul without the American advisers who have accompanied them through the early weeks of the campaign to retake the militant group’s last stronghold in the country, according to the Pentagon…

Read on.