U.S. Troops Get Closer to Iraqi Front Lines After Obama Move
- Adding 217 troops brings force to 4,087, Pentagon says
- It doesn't change `basic elements' of strategy, Earnest says
President Barack Obama tours the 2016 White House Science Fair on April 13, 2016.
Photographer: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
President Barack Obama’s approval of Pentagon efforts to intensify the U.S. effort in Iraq may matter less for the small contingent of troops being added than for the decision to allow them closer to the front lines of the war against Islamic State.
Obama has agreed to send 217 more U.S. troops, bringing the authorized total to 4,087, and to let them “embed at the battalion level,” a step closer to the fighting than previously, Captain Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday.