President Obama authorized sending 275 troops to Iraq Monday to provide “support and security” for US personnel — and may add up to 100 special forces — as insurgents captured another key city in the war-ravaged nation.
Obama’s announcement, in letters to congressional leaders, as required by law, came as Iraqi men and even young boys answered their nation’s call to fight the fanatics.
“This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting US citizens and property, if necessary, and is equipped for combat. This force will remain in Iraq until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed,” Obama wrote.
Last week, he said he was considering a variety of options to deal with the growing crisis, but would not send US troops into combat.
Obama moved after jihadists captured Tal Afar — a city of 200,000 on the highway to Syria — in another step toward their goal of establishing a caliphate including territory from both countries that would be ruled under strict Sharia law.
Sources said the United States was considering launching air or drone strikes and was developing a separate plan to deploy additional special forces in an advisory and training capacity for Iraq’s demoralized army.
The White House insisted that didn’t constitute a change from Obama’s position of last Friday.
“The president was very clear that we will not be sending US troops back into combat in Iraq,” administration spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. “That remains the case and he has asked his national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support Iraqi security forces.”
But one insider said the mission could include up to 100 special forces soldiers who would fall under the authority of the US ambassador and would not be authorized to engage in combat, another official said.
Abdulal Abbas, the local governor, said Tal Afar was dealing with “martyrs, wounded, chaos and refugees,” and that tens of thousands had fled, The Times of London reported.
The battle for the city — about 100 miles from the Syrian border — began on Sunday, with Iraqi officials saying fighters from the radical Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were firing rockets seized from military arms depots in Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, which they captured last week.
The local garrison suffered devastating casualties and the main hospital was unable to cope with the wounded.
Elsewhere, an army helicopter was shot down during clashes near Fallujah, killing the two-man crew, security officials said.
The gains come as Iranian-backed Shiite militias and thousands of volunteers, young and old, joined the security forces to prepare for what Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had vowed will be a fight to liberate every inch of captured territory.
The United States also moved more military muscle into the region, signaling its willingness to use force — but also to rescue US personnel from the embassy in Baghdad if that became necessary.
US Navy officials said the USS Mesa Verde — which carries Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, capable of vertical takeoffs and landings — was moving into the Persian Gulf with about 500 Marines on board.
The ship would join the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, the USS Philippines Sea, a cruiser, and the USS Truxton, a destroyer, which are already in the Gulf.
Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said the muscular presence provided “the commander-in-chief additional options to protect American citizens and interests in Iraq, should he choose to use them.”
The US Embassy remains open, but the State Department already has started to “temporarily” send some staff to other consulate locations in Iraq while insisting that the embassy was safe.
The capture of Tal Afar came after the Sunni militants posted graphic photos over the weekend that they said showed Islamic State fighters massacring as many as 1,700 captured Iraqi soldiers.
And more videos were posted to Islamist websites Monday showing Islamic State thugs beating and taunting captured Iraqi soldiers before appearing to execute them.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay condemned the “coldblooded” killings, calling them war crimes.
Meanwhile, battle-hardened Kurdish troops have also pushed outside their semi-autonomous stronghold in northern Iraq to protect the nation’s fourth-biggest oilfield from the militants.
With Post Wires and additional reporting by Geoff Earle in DC