Obama calls on Sunni tribes to participate in fight against ISIS in Iraq

American military officials have announced that President Obama’s administration is preparing plans to reinforce the Iraqi security forces training operations, especially with Sunni tribe members. They also announced that the administration may send additional trainers to Iraq.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Obama is looking into increasing the number of training sites to train Iraqi forces as well.

He added that the options include providing new training sites, noting that they had made recommendations regarding potential reinforcements for the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces mission.

According to the military leader, the army is currently answering Obama’s questions regarding the results of this programme, including its impact on the resources of the US Department of Defence and on the forces participating in operations in other areas.

On Monday, Obama said he was discussing with the Iraqi Prime Minister, on the side-lines of the G7 summit, the need to include the residents of the Sunni areas in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). He also stipulated that political reforms be made in order for the US to support Baghdad with weapons and funds.

Obama admitted that his country still does not have a complete strategy for training the Iraqi defence forces to regain the areas controlled by ISIS. He said the reason for this is that there are obligations that must be fulfilled by the Iraqis as well with regards to recruitment and training, “so all of the details are not yet worked out.”

Obama called for more trained, focused, fresh, and better equipped forces. Al-Abadi wants the same, so we are studying plans on how to do this.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said that the original plan to fight ISIS included training 9,000 Iraqi Sunni soldiers, but the success of these forces has convinced the American side to increase the number of trained fighters.

He noted that the American consultants trained over 8,000 Iraqi soldiers so far, in addition to 2,601 soldiers who are still in the process of being trained.

Warren mentioned that the Pentagon wants to train Sunni Iraqi tribe members in Al-Anbar, following the model of the Sahawat established by the US forces in 2006 to fight Al-Qaeda.

He also added that the efforts to train the Iraqi defence forces is suffering from a lack of volunteers, a matter being discussed with the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider Al-Abadi.