BREAKING NEWS

US weighing Iraqi request for more advisers

WASHINGTON - Senior US officials are considering an Iraqi request for more American military advisers to help Iraqi security forces in their campaign against Islamic State militants, a senior Obama administration official said on Tuesday.
The request came up in meetings that deputy White House national security adviser Antony Blinken and other US officials had with top Iraqi officials last week on a trip to Baghdad and other parts of the country.
Iraq is not requesting American ground forces and in any event President Barack Obama would not send them there, and any military advisers sent there would be limited to providing advice and assistance to the Iraqis doing the fighting, the official said.
The official said the campaign against Islamic State in Iraq is likely to take months, well into next year, and that it will take that much time to take back key areas such as the city of Mosul or Iraq's Anbar province.