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The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) provided details on Thursday for the 475 additional service members President Barack Obama announced will deploy to Iraq as part of the strategy against the Islamic State (IS) forces.
At a Pentagon press briefing, DOD spokesman John Kirby discussed when troops will begin to arrive and their intended mission. "I think you're going to start to see these additional 475 arrive in the coming days," he said. "Probably over the next week or so, you'll see them start to arrive."
Kirby said the six assessment teams now in Iraq will transition to an advise-and-assist mission.
"They will be reinforced by additional troops as the President announced," he said, adding "we're talking about somewhere between 15 and 20 advise-and-assist teams total when they're all there and manned up."
"The level at which they will be providing advice and assistance is at the brigade or higher headquarters level," the spokesman said.
Kirby emphasized that the advise-and-assist teams are not intended to have a combat role, such as foot patrols or any similar types of missions.
"I think the president was clear that we're going to be more aggressive in supporting the Iraqi security forces on the ground," Kirby said, noting that the U.S. is eager to work with the new Iraqi government, which he called "a new unity government."
As the Iraqi government has just stood up, much work remains to be done. "The difference is now we have a new government -- a government that has publicly proclaimed a desire to be much more inclusive and responsible. Things are pointing in the right direction," the spokesman added.
The admiral also discussed training and equipping properly vetted elements of the moderate Syrian armed opposition.
DOD still needs 500 million dollars for the train-and-equip project, Kirby said, adding that officials are working with members of Congress to try to get the funds approved and appropriated.
