130 U.S. advisers arrive in Iraq

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) About 130 American military advisers have arrived in Iraq to help with its humanitarian aid in north area of the country, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a press statement.

Hagel made the announcement at Camp Pendleton,California, saying that the new detachment arrived Tuesday in the Kurdish capital of Erbil, where it will help develop options to rescue a large group of civilians besieged by the Sunni terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The troops are there to “take a closer look and give a more in-depth assessment of where we can continue to help the Iraqis,” Hagel said, insisting that the troops are not there for combat and the American mission remains “limited.”

Hagel restated President Barack Obama‘ s belief that only a new, inclusive Iraqi government could end the crisis there.

“As the president has made very clear, we’re not going back into Iraq in any of the same combat mission dimensions that we once were in Iraq,” he concluded. /End/