United States to deploy 400 addtional troops in Iraq from the 101st Airborne Division 10608161

Defence & Security News - United States
 
United States to deploy 400 addtional troops in Iraq from the 101st Airborne Division.
The U.S. Department of the Army announced today, August 5, 2016, the deployment of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with approximately 400 soldiers to Iraq this summer in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
     
The U.S. Department of the Army announced today, August 5, 2016, the deployment of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with approximately 400 soldiers to Iraq this summer in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. Sgt. Arturro Hernandez of Apache Troop, 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, Task Force Strike, looks through his binoculars during his guard shift June 18, 2016, at Kara Soar Base, Iraq (Photo By 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson DVIDS)
     
These soldiers will deploy as a part of the President's recent announcement of an increase in authorized troop levels in Iraq. They will join approximately 1,300 previously deployed soldiers from the same unit which deployed this spring.

The 400 additional soldiers will come from various units across the brigade and have a mix of military occupational specialties and job skills, officials said.

"We call these soldiers the Strike Ready Force. They have remained prepared to deploy and join the team in Iraq at a moment's notice," said Lt. Col. Eric Lopez, 2nd Brigade Combat Team provisional brigade commander. "These soldiers are trained and ready to join the fight."

In July 2016, The United States sent an additional 560 military personnel to Iraq to assist in its fight against the Islamic State group. This boost in troop numbers has take to 4,647 the number of US forces who have returned to Iraq to fight Isis. As Iraqi forces, aided by Shia irregulars, have gained traction on the battlefield, American advisers have started embedding with Iraqi brigades and battalions, drawing the advisers closer to the fighting.

Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) is the U.S. military's operational name for the military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL alos called Daesh) that was launched in June 2014, including both the campaign in Iraq and the campaign in Syria.