Obama Focuses on Iraq as Fight Against ISIS Intensifies

摘要

The U.S. signaled a new phase in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) on Nov. 7, as President Obama announced he was doubling to 3,000 the number of U.S. advisers in Iraq. The most conspicuous fighting remains in Syria, where Kurdish forces are holding their ground in Kobani, the border town to which ISIS has laid siege for two months. But Iraq is where the extremist Sunni militia made its name, rolling up victories and territory in a lightning offensive last June. And Iraq is where the Obama Administration wants to roll it back. Until now, U.S. advisers have operated from Erbil, in Iraq's Kurdish northeast, and Baghdad, the capital that seemed close to "collapsing" in June, a senior Administration official acknowledges.