IraqObama orders 300 U.S. military advisers to Iraq (updated)

President Barack Obama yesterday announced he had authorized sending up to 300 U.S. troops to Iraq to help the Iraqi military cope with a rapidly advancing attack by Islamist fighters from the fundamentalist group ISIS.

“It is in our national security interest not to see an all-out civil war in Iraq,” Obama said, warning that the fate of Iraq “hangs in the balance.”

The president, speaking from the White House Briefing Room, stressed that he would not send combat troops into Iraq, and the contingent being sent there would operate as “advisers.”

“American combat troops are not going to be fighting in Iraq again,” he said. “We do not have the ability to simply solve this problem by sending in tens of thousands of troops and committing the kinds of blood and treasure that has already been expended in Iraq.”

While reiterating that he would not send combat troops to Iraq, the president said the United States would help the Iraqis “take the fight” to the militants, who he said pose a threat to Iraq’s stability and to American interests, because Iraq could become a sanctuary for terrorists who could strike the United States or its allies.

The 300 troops sent to Iraq will be drawn from U.S. special operations forces, and will assist the Iraqi military to develop and execute a counter-offensive against ISIS. Their mission is likely to spread to the selection of targets for any future air strikes. Obama stopped short of accepting a request from Baghdad to order U.S. air power into the skies over Iraq immediately. Instead, he said the United States was gathering intelligence on the positions of militant fighters to identify targets, adding, “We will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if we conclude the situation on the ground requires it.”

Obama stressed tha the option of unleashing U.S. airstrikes would

The contingent of special forces will train and advise Iraq’s troops, and will be deployed in several teams comprising about a dozen , embedded into “joint operations centers” with the Iraqi military, a concept borrowed from the 2007-2008 U.S. troop surge.

The United States has ruled out – at least publicly — cooperating militarily with Iran, which has been increasing its involvement in the conflict. Obama said, however, that Iran “can play a constructive role” in urging the Iraqi government to move past sectarianism, but should avoid entering the conflict as “solely as an armed force on behalf of the Shi’a.”

“Iran has heard from us,” he said. “We have indicated to them it is important for them to avoid steps that might encourage the kind of sectarians slips that might lead to civil war.”

He warned against Tehran repeating its approach in Syria, where he said Iran entered “hot and heavy on one side.”

The Washington Post noted that Obama stopped short of explicitly calling for Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to step down, but he did stressed that Iraq would be far better off with leadership which is more inclusive and which is more accommodating of the demands of Iraq’s ethnic and religious minorities.

Obama’s appearance in the Briefing Room followed a meeting with his national security team in the White House Situation Room.

The Iraqi government, brushing aside U.S. barely veiled demand that Maliki step down, and indicating that Maliki was not going to make his government more inclusive, still expressed its frustration Thursday over U.S. reluctance to use its air power to attack the insurgents.