Obama mulling combat role for US troops in Iraq

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will consider sending US military advisers into combat in Iraq on a “case-by-case basis,” the American military’s top-ranking officer told senators on Tuesday.

General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said future battles in Iraq could require American troops to join combat missions with Baghdad government forces to help direct American warplanes.

Dempsey indicated he had discussed the possibility with the US president, who has so far emphatically ruled out sending any ground troops into combat.

“He [Obama] told me to come back to him on a case-by-case basis,” the four-star general said.

General Lloyd Austin, head of US Central Command, which oversees the air war in Iraq and American forces in the Middle East, agreed with Dempsey on the potential need for US tactical air controllers to take part in combat missions, he said.

When Iraqi and Kurdish forces recently planned to retake Mosul dam from the Islamic State group, Austin favored deploying forward air controllers into battle to ensure the accuracy of US airstrikes, according to Dempsey.

But he said commanders eventually found a way to support the Iraqi operation without sending in a “JTAC,” a joint terminal tactical air controller, who directs bombing raids from the ground.

Dempsey’s comments cast doubt on the White House’s insistence that there would no combat role for US troops in Iraq.

Obama has approved the deployment of about 1,600 troops to Iraq to secure the US Embassy and advise the Iraqi government army.