Tag: ISW

While its forces are facing growing pressure in the North, ISIS has increased its attacks on Baghdad last week, rippling mortar fires and suicide bombings at several targets in the Iraqi capital, in a move to relieve the pressure it is facing as a result of the recent U.S. air campaign targeting its positions, comments Ahmed Ali, the Iraq Team Lead at ISW.

analysts at the Institute for the Studies of War say, "perhaps as many as 25,000 ground troops in all in Iraq and Syria”. Although in roles very different from those they played in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, the decisive effort will require primarily teams of Special Forces and special mission units, deployed in a dispersed footprint throughout the Sunni lands, as well as advising the Iraqi Security Forces and the moderate Syrian opposition.