Marines will continue to help Iraqi security forces destroy what\u2019s left of ISIS as enemy fighters try to hide among civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Close to 1,000 Marines are currently advising Iraqi security forces, said Marine Brig. Gen. Robert Sofge, deputy commanding general for operations in Iraq and director of the Combined Joint Operations Center, where he works with the Iraqi equivalent of the U.S. military\u2019s joint staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Working out of their \u201cold stomping grounds\u201d in Anbar province, Marines are helping coordinate artillery and airstrikes in support of Iraqi forces, providing Iraqi units with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and flying MV-22B Ospreys and planes to support operations, Sofge said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMarines, in particular, understand western Iraq,\u201d Sofge told Marine Corps Times. \u201cWe spent most folks\u2019 career there and there are relationships there that endure. Even while priorities may shift in and around [U.S. Central Command], that doesn\u2019t make what\u2019s going in Anbar [province] less important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right now, the Marine Corps is leading a task force that is assisting Iraqi security forces near al-Qaim, which Iraqi security forces recently retook from ISIS, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the exception of Rawa, a city north of the Euphrates river, ISIS has \u201clargely broken and run\u201d from Iraqi cities, Sofge said. Although the fight against ISIS remains conventional, it is moving into a new phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe believe that the enemy is in the deserts and also fading into the civilian population,\u201d Sofge said. \u201cThere\u2019s still a great deal of work to be done even if it\u2019s not against traditional formations in the cities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, ISIS has not returned to the insurgent tactics used by its predecessor al-Qaida in Iraq, he said. Marines are not advising Iraqi security forces how fight insurgents because the Iraqis are not conducting counterinsurgency operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going forward, Marines will continue to play an important role in the overall U.S. military effort to defeat ISIS in Iraq, he said. With their training on how to be part of an air-ground task force, Marines are uniquely qualified to advise Iraqi troops on how to maneuver and fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe military defeat of ISIS is near \u2015 I think everybody recognizes that,\u201d Sofge said. \u201cFor that, the Iraqi security forces should be congratulated. But the work is not done. In fact, the work becomes more nuanced and more difficult here to get that last bit out of ISIS out of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISIS has largely been driven out of Iraqi cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":50458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":69,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[101,12,25,69],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1187],"class_list":["post-23902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-marine-corps"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KWVWKQ2J5JFPTDT7CKM5C4UW7A","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2017\/11\/08\/marines-will-help-iraqis-finish-off-isis-commander-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n