WASHINGTON — In Iraq’s western Anbar province, more than 300 U.S. service members are posted at a base in the thick of a pitched battle between Iraqi forces, backed by tribal fighters, and well-armed Islamic State terrorists.
The terrorists, positioned at a nearby town, have repeatedly hit the base with artillery or rocket fire in recent weeks. Since the middle of December, the U.S.-led military coalition has launched 13 airstrikes around the facility.
U.S. troops have suffered no casualties as a result of the attacks. But the violence has underlined the risks to American personnel as they fan out across Iraq as part of President Barack Obama’s expanding mission against the Islamic State, even as he has pledged U.S. operations will not “involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.”
In a sign of the risk, military officials said American soldiers have been ferried out to the Ayn al-Asad base under the cover of night by helicopter — partly to maintain a low profile for the renewed U.S. operation in Iraq but also to protect soldiers amid fierce fighting west of the capital, Baghdad.
Under Obama’s plan to aid the Iraqi government, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is expected to grow to about 3,000 from just under 2,000 now. They are deployed not only in Baghdad and the northern city of Irbil but in recent weeks have been sent to Anbar and training sites flanking the capital.
Overall, they make up a tiny share of the force of more than 160,000 that was stationed in Iraq at the height of the 2003-11 war. But U.S. military officials acknowledge that Iraq remains a “dangerous neighborhood in places,” as a spokesman for U.S. Central Command put it.
“We are aware of those risks, and we are taking appropriate measures to mitigate them,” said Col. Patrick Ryder.
Confined to base
While U.S. commanders have suggested the on-the-ground U.S. activities might expand, troops are limited to advising local commanders and retraining some of Iraq’s army. They are confined to military headquarters or training bases at four sites.
Those sites include al-Asad in Anbar, the largely Sunni province that has been particularly volatile and that provided a foothold for the Islamic State’s rise. Militants control much of the province, including the city of Fallujah and the town of Hit.
If Anbar falls, it would expose Baghdad to even greater risk, allowing militants to more easily traffic reinforcements and weaponry in from neighboring Syria.
U.S. and allied warplanes have sought to counter that threat from the air, launching recent strikes against militant positions around al-Asad and other parts of Anbar.
Suleiman al-Kubbaisi, a spokesman for Anbar’s provincial council, said Iraqi forces were battling to reclaim areas around Baghdadi, a town about 10 miles from al-Asad. In the meantime, he said, those areas were being used as launching pads for militants to fire artillery and rockets at the base where Americans are stationed.
Sheikh Naeem al-Gaoud, a tribal elder of the Albu Nimr tribe in Anbar, said Islamic State terrorists were dangerously close to the base and to Iraqis who lived nearby. He called for additional airstrikes and American operations to defend Anbar.
“There is definitely more activity in this area than there was before,” he said. “If (militants) had the chance, they would attack Ayn al-Asad.”
Terrorists’ focus
But Jessica Lewis McFate, an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, said terrorists appeared to be focusing their efforts on ensuring Iraqi forces cannot use the base to block their attempts to capture other, more strategic parts of Anbar.
Al-Asad lies between areas under Islamic State control, into which the group eventually will have to press if it will be able to conquer the province. Terrorists are still fighting for Ramadi, another important city. Iraqi forces so far have been able to defend other strategic areas, such as the Haditha dam.
The terrorists’ goal is “not necessarily to try to overrun the base but to try to pin forces in that fight,” Lewis McFate said.
