Around 300 American troops have been evacuated from a military base that has come under increasing rocket fire as Iraqi Army and tribal soldiers engaged in battle with ISIL militants in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, according to the Washington Post.
This is not the first time that ISIL has attacked the American facility. The U.S.-led military coalition has launched 13 airstrikes around the base in retaliation since mid-December.
Though no casualties were reported, and the soldiers were covertly transported to a nearby base in Ayn al-Asad, the attacks highlight the dangers that “advisers” will face as more troops deploy across the Middle Eastern country as part of the Operation Inherent Resolve mission against ISIL.
In a recent article published by Kurdish media outlet Shafaq News, tribal leader Sheikh Mahmud Nimrawi claimed that US forces were directly involved in their first ground battle with ISIL militants near the Ain Al-Assad base in Iraq’s Anbar province.
"US forces intervened because … ISIS started to come near the base, which they are stationed in so out of self-defense, they responded,” Nimrawi said.
The report couldn't be independently verified, and the Pentagon neither confirmed nor dismissed the claim.
Following in their footsteps, private security firms are also sending more and more contractors to support military and diplomatic personnel in Iraq. Presidential promises of "no boots on the ground" technically don't apply to these employees, a factor that led the founder of the infamous Blackwater security company to claim last month that his business could solve the ISIL issue, if it hadn’t been "crashed" by the Obama administration.
"As a private organization, we could’ve solved the boots-on-the-ground issue, we could have had contracts from people that want to go there as contractors; you don’t have the argument of U.S. active duty going back in there,” Prince said during a discussion with retired four-star General James Conway.
Nevertheless, the Obama administration maintains officially that no U.S. personnel is actively involved in fighting ISIL on the ground. It is not clear, however, how the roles of these soldiers may change should battles intensify between under-trained Iraqi forces and well-armed ISIL militants.
2014 has been the deadliest year for Iraqis since 2007, with more than 15,000 civilians and security personnel killed, according to the country’s health, interior and defence ministries.
