Digital Vision/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon Tuesday played down the possibility of a mission creep in Iraq — that is, an expansion of the Obama administration’s stated goals in helping Baghdad defeat Sunni extremists.
There are approximately 750 U.S. troops in Iraq, which include the 100 who were there protecting the U.S. Embassy before the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria began taking over large swaths of territory in early June.
Asked whether the U.S. is planning a further buildup of forces, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters, “There’s no mission creep — the missions haven’t changed, some of the numbers have been added in the security assistance realm, and look, it’s very fluid.”
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has been pestering the U.S. for military hardware, including fighter jets. With the threat of ISIS attacking Baghdad a real possibility, Baghdad has turned to Iran, Syria and Russia for assistance.
Kirby said that while Iraq is free to seek help from anywhere it wants, the U.S. urges other countries to provide assistance “in a way that doesn’t further inflame the sectarian tensions, that doesn’t make a bad situation worse.”
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