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Elite Iraqi soldiers supported by US jets battled extremist forces near capital city Baghdad on Wednesday as Washington plans its strategy for expanded operations against the Islamic State (IS).
US President Barack Obama prepared to meet with US military commanders and take crucial decisions in his strategy against the IS while trying to stay true to his promise of not dragging the US into another military dilemma.
The White House played down suggestions that deploying foot soldiers was an option it was mulling over, with expanded air strikes adding substantial pressure on IS fighters. It also said that its strategy will involve helping revamp an army it was not able to finish training when it ended its eight-year-long occupation of the country in 2011.
According to Iraqi tribal and military leaders, US jets targeted three IS targets in the region to the south of Baghdad, known as the “triangle of death, killing at least four extremists.
According to a Janabi tribe leader from the region of Jurf al-Sakhr, Iraqi soldiers fought against IS militants overnight till the break of dawn on Wednesday in an area called Fadhiliya. In a statement issued late on Tuesday, the US military said that it had conducted three air strikes to the southwest of Baghdad, but did not say exactly where.
The region of Jurf al-Sakhr is important because it lies on the banks of the Euphrates River and in between the country’s revered Shi’ite sites to the south of Baghdad and the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah to the west of the capital.
The tribal leader also said that the push was being led by the Golden Brigade, widely considered as the best fighting force in Iraq. The Golden Brigade, which last month led an offensive to recapture Iraq’s largest dam near Mosul, has been jumping from one front line to another.