After ISIL rocket attack killed US soldier, Pentagon announces more Marines will be deployed on the ground in Iraq. ISIL declared a 'caliphate' spanning from northwestern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad in 2014 [Reuters] The US announced on Sunday it will put more troops on the ground in Iraq after a Marine was killed in an ISIL rocket barrage. Troops from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit will add to American forces already in Iraq battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), the Pentagon said. It was unclear exactly how many Marines would be deployed, but the move was made to bolster security at a coalition base near Makhmur on the frontlines with ISIL in northern Iraq. A US Marine was killed in an ISIL rocket attack at the base on Saturday, the Pentagon said, the second American combat death in the fight against the group. The rocket barrage occurred in the autonomous Kurdish region, where Baghdad has recently been deploying forces to pr...
Explore the latest geopolitical developments