Obama Advisers Call for Sending Army Closer to Contact Lines in Syria, Iraq

Senior national security advisers have called on US President Barack Obama to move the country's forces closer to the contact line in Iraq and Syria to increase the efficiency of the US-led military campaign against ISIL, US officials told The Washington Post.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the newspaper, if the plan is adopted, Washington will position its Special Operations forces on the ground close to the front line in Syria to help local moderate opposition and Kurdish groups mount a military offensive on the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa, while US advisers in Iraq could "help Iraqi commanders plan and prosecute the day-to-day fight" to retake Ramadi, the capital of the Anbar province.

The US president may make a decision on the matter as early as this week amid Washington's concern over the stalemated anti-ISIL operation, the newspaper’s sources said on Monday.

The US-led international coalition has been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq since August 2014, and in Syria since September 2014 without the approval of the UN Security Council or the Syrian government.