OPINION:
Last year, the Obama administration deployed 300 advisers to help the Iraqis oppose the Islamic State. According to the president, these troops would be training and assisting allied troops but “American combat troops are not going to be fighting in Iraq again.”
It seems this may not have been the whole truth as the Kurdish Peshmerga has told the Guardian that American troops have been involved in active fighting for months. Kurdish soldiers have shown smartphone video of American special forces actively involved in battles, at times even running in front of Peshmerga troops. In other situations, the Kurds have called in American snipers as well where Islamic State snipers have been especially effective. “They fight and they even fight ahead of the peshmerga. They won’t allow anyone to take photos of them, but they take photos of everyone.”
The Guardian quotes a senior Kurdish commander, “In February, for the first time, four American snipers came to south Kirkuk because we had lost several peshmerga to the ISIS snipers. The peshmerga snipers were weak and before we could hit a single Isis sniper, we would lose a few men. Therefore we desperately needed American snipers. They had taken part in all the fights in south Kirkuk and they had really good snipers.”
CENTCOM commanders and the White House deny the reports, saying American forces are not acting as front line troops but will engage when American interests are involved. So, the truth seems somewhere in the middle but it is obvious American special forces are in close contact with the enemy on a regular basis.
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