US orders more troops to Iraq to aid Sunni integration

Expanded efforts will also include expediting the delivery of US equipment and arms to Iraq, including directly to troops at al-Taqaddum, a fifth training site

Amid persistent setbacks in the fight against the Islamic State, President Barack Obama turned his military's focus to the Sunni-Shiite divide, ordering hundreds of troops to Iraq to better integrate Iraqi forces and lay the groundwork to retake Ramadi and other key cities.

The expanded military campaign will set up a new base in Anbar Province to advise Iraqi forces on how to plan and organize operations and help them reach out to Sunni tribes and bring them into the battle.

But it leaves out any move to send US forces closer to the front lines, either to call in airstrikes or advise smaller battlefront units, underscoring Obama's reluctance to plunge the military deeper into war and risk the sight of more body bags coming home from Iraq.

Under the plan announced Wednesday, up to 450 more American troops will deploy to Iraq in the next six to eight weeks and set up a fifth training site al-Taqaddum, a desert air base that was a US military hub during the 2003-2011 war.

The site will be dedicated to helping the Iraqi Army integrate Sunni tribes into the fight, an element seen as a crucial to driving the Islamic State out of the Sunni-majority areas of western Iraq.

The expanded effort also will include expediting the delivery of US equipment and arms to Iraq, including directly to troops at al-Taqaddum, under the authority of the government in Baghdad.

The US is insistent that the Americans will not have a combat role, but they may venture out of the base in order to help identify and recruit Sunni tribes. About a quarter of the new troops will be advisers, and the remainder will handle security, logistics and other administrative tasks.

Obama this week lamented that the US lacks a "complete strategy" for defeating the Islamic State, and officials pointed to a glaring lack of recruits among Sunnis.

The administration insisted yesterday that the plan is not a change in the US strategy, but instead said it addresses that Sunni recruitment failure.

The Sunni-Shiite divide has been at the heart of the Islamic State's successes in Iraq. Officials blamed the Iraqi government for last year's collapse of the military in the face of the Islamic State onslaught.

Many Sunnis in the armed forces dropped their weapons and fled, unwilling to fight for the Shiite-led government.

Some local citizens in Sunni-majority areas still fear an invasion and reprisals from Iran-backed Shiite militia even more than domination by the Islamic State.

And Iraqi leaders in the Shiite-led government have been slow to recruit Sunni tribesmen, fearing that the fighters, once armed, could turn against them.