Army headquarters unit sent to Iraq

WASHINGTON – In an escalation of American re-engagement in Iraq, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday deployed the first division headquarters unit to the war-torn country since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011.

About 200 soldiers from the Army’s 1st Infantry Division headquarters, based at Fort Riley, Kansas, will bring to almost 1,400 the number of troops President Barack Obama has sent into Iraq since July to counter an offensive by Islamic State fighters.

Obama, Hagel and other U.S. leaders have insisted that the new American troops do not represent “boots on the ground” and will not see combat as they advise and help command Iraqi forces.

An additional 300 members of the Army’s oldest continuously operating division will be sent to the Central Command theater in the Middle East, ready to enter Iraq if needed. Currently, thousands of American troops are based in Kuwait.

The new troop deployments came a day after a second round of expanded American airstrikes in Syria, targeting a dozen oil refineries held by the Islamic State.

The Pentagon acknowledged that despite the U.S.-led strikes in Syria, the Islamic State retains significant resources.

“They still have financing at their fingertips,” spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said. “They still have plenty of volunteers. They still have plenty of weapons and vehicles and the ability to move around. They still control a wide swath inside Iraq, no question about it.”

To help stem the Islamic State’s campaign in Iraq, the 216 American troops from the 1st Infantry Division headquarters will arrive in Iraq over the next month to lead U.S.-Iraqi Joint Operation Centers set up during the summer in Baghdad and the Kurdish regional capital of Irbil.