The US announced on Sunday it will put more
troops on the ground in Iraq after a Marine was
killed in an ISIL rocket barrage.
Troops from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit
will add to American forces already in Iraq
battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), the Pentagon
said.
It was unclear exactly how many Marines
would be deployed, but the move was made to
bolster security at a coalition base near
Makhmur on the frontlines with ISIL in northern
Iraq.
A US Marine was killed in an ISIL rocket attack
at the base on Saturday, the Pentagon said, the
second American combat death in the fight
against the group.
The rocket barrage occurred in the autonomous
Kurdish region, where Baghdad has recently
been deploying forces to prepare for an
offensive against ISIL-controlled Mosul.
"Several other Marines were wounded and they
are being treated for their varying injuries," the
Pentagon said in a statement.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera's
Kristen Saloomey said the troop deployment
was a direct response to the Marine's death.
"We're told now by sources in the Pentagon
that this deployment was sped up to respond
to that attack, that this is a unit that is
providing security for forces in this area,"
Saloomey reported.
"This base is also considered to be very
important in the coming months, as it is
expected to become the base of operations for
a possible ground offensive to retake Mosul."
Michael Pregent, a Middle East analyst and
former US intelligence officer, said "force
protection" is paramount for Washington after
Saturday's death and the killing of a US special
forces soldier in 2015 who was involved in an
anti-ISIL operaton.
"The deployment also talks to the need to have
more US advisers and special operators on the
ground with the Iraqi security forces to fight
ISIS," Pregent told Al Jazeera.
Aljazeera
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