ISISU.S. Marines deployed to Iraq to join ground fight against ISIS

U.S. Marines have been dispatched to Iraq to join the ground fight against ISIS. The Marines are from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), an air-ground fighting force of 2,200 soldiers. The number of Marines sent to Iraq has not been made public.

The Marine Corps Times notes that there are around 3,600 U.S. army personnel already in Iraq, involved in leading air strikes against ISIS, supplying arms to the Kurdish peshmerga, providing intelligence and support to the Kurdish and Iraqi forces, and carrying out humanitarian air drops and.

Ground clashes between ISIS fighters and soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition have been infrequent. These mostly involved operations by U.S. Special Forces behind ISIS line.

The news about the Marines deployment comes a day after an American Marine was killed in a rocket attack – the second combat death of a U.S. serviceman in Iraq since the U.S.-led campaign against Isis began.

Military analysts note that even though details about the role of the Marines in Iraq have not been made public, their deployment is a step toward the use of more conventional tactics in the fight against ISIS.

In January, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said: “We’re looking for opportunities to do more, and there will be boots on the ground. I want to be clear about that.”

In February the top-ranking U.S. general in Iraq, Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, said: “We have shifted from a pure counterinsurgency focus and are now preparing the [Iraqi security forces] to conduct what we refer to as combined arms operations,

“There is a good potential that we will need additional forces to provide those capabilities. The ability to integrate infantry, armor, artillery, air power, engineers and other assets on the battlefield provides the Iraqis with a decisive advantage over a static enemy dug in behind complex obstacle belts.”