US to send 1,300 troops to Iraq

Washington is to send 1,300 soldiers to Iraq next month to train Iraqi security forces, the Pentagon announced on Friday. The announcement was made in a media conference by the Press Secretary of the US Defence Department, John Kirby.

According to Kirby, the deployment will begin in late January to help security forces on the ground in the fight against ISIS. The troops are part of the additional 1,500 troops that President Barack Obama authorised in November.

The US is leading an international alliance against ISIS, which controls large swathes of Iraq and Syria.