Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said the U.S. will provide Kurdish peshmerga forces up to $415 million in funds and allow advisers to join Iraqi troops as part of its campaign against the Islamic State militant organization, DoD News reported Thursday.
Jim Garamone writes Carter said in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday the U.S. will support Iraqi forces’ land-based offensive operations in Mosul, Iraq, through the deployment of its artillery units and Apache helicopters.
He noted that the U.S. will field 250 more uniformed personnel in Syria and that coalition forces will continue to provide logistics, sustainment and firepower support to defeat the organization’s control in Mosul and Raqqa in Syria.
Carter also cited the role of local forces in the campaign against the Islamic State group.
“Enabling local forces — not substituting for them — is necessary to ensure a lasting defeat [of ISIL],†he added.
