US to deploy special force to Iraq to take on Isis

The announcement means more there will more US boots 'on the ground', despite the promises of President Obama

The special operations force will launch clandestine missions in Iraq and Syria. (AP)

In the latest sign of the White House retreating gradually from its pledge not to put “boots on the ground” in the battle against Isis, the US Secretary of Defence, Ashton Carter, has revealed that he plans to deploy a new “special operations” force to launch clandestine missions in Iraq and Syria.

In testimony on Capitol Hill, Mr Carter acknowledged that the special operators would constitute a standing force based inside Iraq ready conduct missions against Isis in that country and inside Syria. He refused to say how big the unit would be.

Nor did he leave room for doubt that the Pentagon had more plans afoot to take American military power to the front door of Isis.

Ash Carter said the special operations force will launch clandestine missions in Iraq and Syria (AP)

“And there will be more,” Mr Carter told members of Congress, adding that using special operators was a “new way of achieving our objective,” of defeating Isis.

The latest announcement further gives the lie to President Barack Obama’s undertaking to a war weary American public not to reengage in combat in the Middle East.

After Isis galloped across large swathes of Iraq beginning last year, he has sent a total of about 3,500 troops into the country. He has insisted that they are there as advisors and trainers, however, and will not engage in combat on the front lines.

More recently Mr Obama said he was sending fewer than 50 special operations personnel to Syria. They and the new force announced today will have the combined missions of gathering intelligence on the enemy, capturing their leaders, conducting raids and, when necessary, freeing hostages.

Americans got a first glimpse of this new strategy in October when US special forces joined a raid in northern Iraq freeing 70 Isis hostages. One US soldier died. Mr Carter indicated that the new force based in Iraq may not consist only of Americans but might include allied fighters, for example Kurds.

In Paris on Tuesday for the climate change summit, Mr Obama expressed cautious optimism that American and Russian interests in the region would in fighting Isis would align gradually as President Vladimir Putin eventually accepts that his continuing support of President Bashir al-Assad was unsustainable.

“I think Mr. Putin understands that, with Afghanistan fresh in the memory, for him to simply get bogged down in an inconclusive and paralyzing civil conflict is not the outcome that he’s looking for,” Mr Obama said at a press conference, noting Russia has lost a commercial passenger jet, a fighter jet and Russian personnel since they entered the conflict.

Any change of heart by Moscow would not come quickly, he warned, however.

“I don't expect that you are going to see a 180 turn on their strategy over the next several weeks. They have invested for years now in keeping Assad in power. Their presence there is predicated on propping him up.”