REPORT: U.S. Led Efforts Against Islamic State Gaining Traction

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed on Monday that some of the American ground troops deployed to Iraq as advisers to the struggling armed forces of the Baghdad regime have come under “regular” fire from Islamic State (IS, formally ISIS) terrorists. The announcement, although qualified with a denial that the attacks have caused any causalities to US personnel, is likely to fuel talk of “creeping escalation” of US involvement in Iraq even as hundreds of US built military vehicles and other equipment has once again begun to flow into the country. Meanwhile, the mission to re-train Iraqi and Kurdish forces, led by the US but receiving various levels of assistance from several other countries including Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, has begun in earnest, even as tiny Lebanon has finally tightened its borders to refugees fleeing the war, saying it simply does not have the capacity to give refuge to any more.Read More