Deploying ground combat forces 'hostile act'

Iraq considers any country sending ground combat forces into its territory a "hostile act" and has not requested such a deployment, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Thursday.
The US has announced that it will deploy around 100 special forces personnel to Iraq to fight the Islamic State jihadist group here and in neighbouring Syria, while two American senators have proposed tripling the number of US troops in the country.

Iraq "will consider any country sending ground combat forces a hostile act and will deal with it on this basis," Abadi said in a statement.

Baghdad "did not request any side... to send ground forces to Iraq," he said.

It is Abadi's strongest statement yet on the issue of ground combat forces, after he previously said that Iraq did not need them.

It was unclear how or if his remarks would impact the planned US deployment, part of efforts to combat IS, which overran large parts of Iraq last year.

The presence of American ground forces is a contentious issue in Iraq, where the United States fought a nearly nine-year war, and it is politically expedient for Abadi to distance himself from the deployment.

Colonel Steve Warren, the spokesman for the US-led anti-IS coalition, said Wednesday that the new deployment had been discussed with Abadi "for weeks".

Though the troops are to be based in Iraq, they will have the ability to also conduct raids across the border into northern Syria.

US President Barack Obama had repeatedly pledged that there would be no "boots on the ground" to fight against IS, but US special forces have already conducted raids against the jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and more are set to follow the new deployment.

The US-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes against IS in Iraq since August 2014, and has also provided arms and training to forces in the country, but deploying forces with a specific combat mission deepens its involvement.
Source: AFP