MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) - A group of United States military advisers arrived in the city of Ramadi, the capital of Al Anbar Province, 100 km (approximately 62 miles) west of Baghdad, Iraqi news agency, Al-Ikhbariya reported on Sunday.
"The American advisers visited the operational headquarters of Al Anbar province on Saturday evening, where they held a meeting with the heads of the security services of the province, which discussed the positions of Daash militants [Islamic State]," a source in the province told the Iraqi news agency. The source did not specify how many advisers were in attendance.
The United States applied air strikes on IS militants attacking a dam in Haditha, in the province of Al Anbar on Monday. The strikes were the first reported offensive into the province since the US attacks on IS started in August. Thanks to the actions of the Iraqi army, with the support from the air strikes, the militants failed to capture the dam on the Euphrates River, Iraq's second biggest hydroelectric facility which provides millions with water.
During his speech addressing the nation on September 11, President Barack Obama, assured Americans that the United States Army would not return to fight in Iraq. However, he admitted that to bring the situation under control Iraq requires more military advisers. Obama announced he would dispatch some 500 more US troops to Iraq to assist the country's security forces bringing the number of American forces in the area to over 1,000.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, it launched an offensive in Iraq and seized vast areas in both countries, proclaiming an Islamic caliphate on the territories under its control.
