US is duty-bound to help Iraq wipe out the IS

The US decision to send more troops to Iraq to help fight the Islamic State is not a strategic but a tactical shift, which is not expected to alter the battle against the terrorist group. On Saturday, about 80 US military advisers who reached Iraq's western province of Anbar to train Iraqi forces and Sunni tribal fighters were greeted by suicide car attacks and an air strike on the IS that killed a total of 41 people.

Three days before, the White House announced that US President Barack Obama had authorized the deployment of up to 450 more American military personnel in Iraq to train and assist the Iraqi forces fighting the IS group. The decision will increase the number of US military personnel in Iraq to about 3,550, the highest after the US pullout at the end of 2011.

Yet judging by the past year's happenings in Iraq, one cannot say that a small step in US military maneuverability will bring about a big change in its fight against the IS. For several months Washington has been leading a coalition to launch daily air strikes on the IS group in Iraq. But still there are no significant signs of weakening of the terrorist group. According to a UN report, terrorism and violence claimed the lives of at least 12,282 civilians and left 23,126 injured in 2014, making it the deadliest year for Iraq since 2006-07.