Obama: No ‘complete strategy’ for training Iraqis

ELMAU, Germany – Acknowledging military setbacks, President Barack Obama said Monday the United States still lacks a “complete strategy” for training Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State. He urged Iraq’s government to allow more of the nation’s Sunnis to join the campaign against the violent militants.

Nearly one year after American troops started returning to Iraq to assist local forces, Obama said the Islamic State remains “nimble, aggressive and opportunistic.” He touted “significant progress” in areas where the U.S. has trained Iraqis to fight but said forces without U.S. assistance are often ill-equipped and suffer from poor morale.

Still, Obama indicated that simply increasing the number of Americans in Iraq would not resolve the country’s issues. The U.S. currently has about 3,000 troops there for train-and-assist missions.

“We’ve got more training capacity than we have recruits,” he said at the close of a two-day Group of Seven meeting at a luxury resort tucked in the Bavarian Alps.

G-7 leaders invited Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to join them Monday for talks on the security situation in the Middle East.

In both public and private, Obama urged Abadi and his Shiite-led government to allow more Sunnis to fight the Islamic State. The White House has long blamed Iraq’s sectarian divisions for stoking the kind of instability that allowed the militants to thrive.

A six-week U.S. combat training course instructs Iraqi forces in how to shoot, communicate and move about on the battlefield. They are also given individual military equipment.

Col. Steve Warren, Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Monday that the U.S. wants to be able to increase the number of Iraqi troops being trained, but to do that the Iraq government has to increase the number of troops it provides. As of June 4, the U.S. had trained 8,920 Iraqi troops at the four sites, and 2,601 more are undergoing training, Warren said.

Associated Press