More Marines To Fight ISIS

The U.S. is sending additional Marines, to Iraq, following a deadly attack on a coalition base in northern Iraq.

Marines and sailors headed to Iraq, are with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The detachment will augment Marines and sailors already fighting ISIS.

The 26th MEU is currently deployed to the 5th fleet area of operation with the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group. More than 4000 Marines and sailors with the blue-green team have been deployed since October.

News of the Marines, headed to Iraq, comes one day after Staff Sergeant Louis Cardin, who was killed by rocket attack via ISIS militant group. Kurdish fighters, also stopped an attempted attack there in November when the terror group tried to use mortar rounds, filled with chlorine gas.

Hundreds of Marines, have been quietly deploying to Iraq, over the past 16 months to assist Iraqis, fighting to retake territory from ISIS militants. In December, Defense Secretary Ash Carter, announced the deployment of a 200-man special operations task force to northern Iraq, to begin kill/capture missions against the Islamic State.

Last month, the assault force captured alive a mid-level ISIS operative tied to the group’s chemical weapons program. After weeks of interrogation he was turned over to Iraqi forces. A U.S. military spokesman said the U.S. would still have access to question him further should the need arise.

It was the second time in the past year that U.S. Special Forces have captured an ISIS operative from the battlefield.

In May, a Delta Force team killed Abu Sayyaf and captured his wife, Umm Sayyaf, during a nighttime raid in Syria.

May the fight continue…

Isaac J. Hall II

Semper Fi