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ByJimKuhnhennand Lolita C. Baldor The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of up to 450 more American troops to Iraq on Wednesday in an effort to reverse major bat- tlefield losses to the Islamic State, an escalation but not a significant shift in the struggling U.S. strategy to defeat the extremist group. The U.S. forces will open a fifth training site in the country, this one dedicated specifically to helping the Iraqi Army integrate Sunni tribes into the fight, an el- ement seen as a crucial to driving the Islamic State out of the Sunni-majority areas of western Iraq. The immediate objec- tive is to win back the key city of Ramadi, which was seized by extremists last month. The U.S. is insistent that Americans will not have a combat role. But in the deployment of American forces and the equipping of Iraqi troops, the U.S. must make sure "that we can be nimble because clearly this is a very nimble enemy," Deputy National Security Adviser Benjamin Rhodes told reporters. The plan is not a change in the U.S. strategy, the ad- ministration says, but ad- dresses a need to get Sun- nis more involved in the fight. Some local citizens in Sunni-majority areas fear an invasion and reprisals from Iran-backed Shiite mi- litia even more than domi- nation by the Islamic State, underscoring a need for any military campaign there to be led by local fighters. But the Shiite-led Iraqi government's record in recruiting Sunni tribes- man has been mixed at best, slowing efforts to re- gain Ramadi and Fallu- jah, a nearby city that Is- lamic State militants have held for more than a year. Iraqi leaders fear that Sunni fighters, once armed, could turn against the gov- ernment, and they have de- ployed most U.S.-trained Iraqi troops in defensive formations around Bagh- dad, the capital. Obama this week la- mented that the U.S. lacks a "complete strategy" for defeating the Islamic State, and officials pointed to a glaring lack of recruits among Sunnis. Wednes- day's announcement of a new training site at al- Taqaddum, a desert air base that was a U.S. mili- tary hub during the 2003- 2011 war, is designed to fix that. The additional troops will include advisers, train- ers, logisticians and secu- rity personnel. But the changes don't go nearly far enough for critics of the administration's ap- proach. They have pressed for military coordinators and advisers closer to the front lines to augment the U.S. airstrike campaign. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday that sending several hundred military advisers to Iraq "is a step in the right direction," but he criticized Obama for not having "an overarch- ing strategy." Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Com- mittee, was harsher in his assessment: "This is incre- mental-ism at its best or worst, depending on how you describe it." Wednesday's careful es- calation illustrated Obama's reluctance to plunge the U.S. too deeply into the fighting and his opposition to rein- troducing U.S. soldiers into a war he had vowed to bring to an end. Still, even some Demo- crats were concerned with the steps announced. "Absent significant re- form, we can help the Iraqi forces win battles, but they will not stay won," said Rep. Adam Schiff of Cal- ifornia, the House Intel- ligence Committee's top Democrat. He took issue with Obama expanding the U.S. role in Iraq while the war still lacks congressio- nal authorization, and he said it was up to Abadi's government to give Sunnis a greater voice in the run- ning of their country. There now are nearly 3,100 U.S. troops in Iraq in- volved in training, advising, security and other support. In addition to bombing mis- sions, the U.S. is conducting aerial reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering mis- sions against Islamic State forces, while counting on Iraqi troops to do the fight- ing on the ground. Counter- terrorism efforts in Syria, where the Islamic State has a greater foothold, are much less far along. In Syria, an Ameri- can fighting with Kurdish forces against the Islamic State group was killed in battle, authorities said Wednesday. With no con- nection to the U.S. mili- tary, he was probably the first American to die fight- ing alongside the Kurds against the extremists. Keith Broomfield of Mas- sachusetts died June 3 in a battle in a village near the border town of Kobani, said Nasser Haji, an official with a group of Kurdish fighters known as the YPG. Broom- field had joined the YPG on Feb. 24 under the nom de guerre Gelhat Raman, Haji said. State Depar tment spokesman Jeff Rathke confirmed Bloomfield's death. The fight against the Is- lamic State group has at- tracted dozens of Western- ers, including a number of Iraq war veterans who have made their way back to the Middle East to join Kurdish fighters, who have had the most success. As for the fresh U.S. mil- itary troops, Obama's de- cision amounts to an ac- knowledgment by the ad- ministration that it has not been swift enough to respond to Iraqi military limitations and Islamic State inroads. BATTLE AGAINST ISLAMIC STATE USordersmoretroopstoIraq, but no overhaul of strategy EVANVUCCI—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS White House press secretary Josh Earnest answers a question about the battle against the Islamic State group in Iraq, on Wednesday during the daily press briefing. By David Warren The Associated Press DALLAS A Texas police of- ficer had answered back-to- back suicide calls and was fraught with emotion when he responded to a report of a fight at a pool party where he wrestled a black teenage girl to the ground, his law- yer said Wednesday, hours after activists called for prosecutors to charge him. Attorney Jane Bishkin said David Eric Casebolt, known to friends and fam- ily as Eric, apologizes for his treatment of the girl and to others offended by his ac- tions Friday at a commu- nity pool in the Dallas sub- urb of McKinney. "With all that happened that day, he allowed his emotions to get the better of him," Bishkin said. But the attorney for Da- jerria Becton, the 15-year- old girl whom Casebolt subdued, said that while her client's family appreci- ated Casebolt's apology, his stress is not an adequate de- fense. 'Appropriateways' "There are appropriate ways to handle stress, and Officer Casebolt's actions were in no way appropri- ate," Hannah Stroud said Wednesday. Stroud also said the family will not de- cide on a next step until she and the city have completed their fact-finding. Casebolt's first call that day was to an apartment complex where a man had fatally shot himself in front of his wife and children, Bishkin said. The former officer of the year, who re- signed Tuesday, then went to a home where a teenager was threatening to kill her- self by jumping from the roof of her parents' home. "Eric's compassion dur- ing these two incidents is a testament to his character," Bishkin said, acknowledg- ing that they had taken an "emotional toll" and made him reluctant to respond to the pool party. Ultimately, he did after hearing a vio- lent assault had occurred, she said. Cellphone video taken by people at the pool show Casebolt running after black teens and ordering them to the ground, then forcing the teen girl onto her stomach and placing his knees on her back. At one point, he drew his fire- arm after two young black men charged forward in ap- parent protest of the girl's treatment but holstered the weapon when two other of- ficers intervened. Police say officers were responding to reports of teens unauthorized to use the pool who were jumping a fence to gain entry. Res- idents of the middle-class neighborhood have said teens attending an end-of- school party at the pool and adjacent park were acting unruly. Local and national civil rights groups held a protest Wednesday in front of the McKinney Police Depart- ment, asking that prosecu- tors charge the 41-year-old white ex-corporal for his actions. Police Chief Greg Conley has called his ac- tions "indefensible." "We will keep on assem- bling and protesting until this officer is charged," said Dominique Alexander with the Next Generation Action Network, based in the Dal- las suburb of Grand Prairie. Grand juries too often have sided with police ac- counts of violent encoun- ters with minorities, ac- cording to Pamela Meanes, president of the Washing- ton, D.C.-based National Bar Association, the na- tion's oldest association of predominantly black law- yers and judges. That pat- tern has changed with the proliferation of cellphones, she told media. "I wonder what the nar- rative would be if there was no tape from this particular scene," she said. 'White female' Bishkin said Casebolt was "not targeting minor- ities," adding, "he also de- tained a white female, who you do not see on the video." The protesters did not specify what charge should be filed against Casebolt, but Heath Harris, a former Dallas County prosecutor who's representing the one person charged in the fra- cas, said video appears to show Casebolt could be ac- cused of a misdemeanor count of official oppression, which covers the mistreat- ment or unlawful deten- tion of people by a public servant. The Collin County district attorney's office did not respond to a call seek- ing comment. POOL PARTY Lawyer says prior calls took 'emotional toll' on Texas officer TONY GUTIERREZ — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Jane Bishkin, le , the Dallas County Police Officers Association attorney who represents former McKinney Officer David Eric Casebolt, holds a news conference. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Demonstrators chant pro-Islamic State group slogans as they wave the group's flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, Iraq. By Vivian Salama The Associated Press BAGHDAD The Islamic State group gave only three options for the soldiers and police officers guarding Mo- sul, Iraq's second-largest city, when they neared it a year ago: Repent, run or die. Many ran. Those who resisted died, often grue- somely in mass killings filmed and uploaded to the Internet, only fueling fear of the extremists. The collapse of Iraqi se- curity forces, which re- ceived billions of dollars in aid and training from the U.S. during its occupation, haunts this divided coun- try today, a year after the Islamic State group seized Mosul and a third of the country. Its sectarian di- vides grow deeper as mil- lions remain displaced, mil- itary gains have seen mili- tant counterattacks and a U.S.-led campaign of air- strikes appears not to have changed the stalemate. What can change the sit- uation is unclear, as lower oil prices sap the Iraqi econ- omy, the U.S. limits its in- volvement on the ground and the Iraqi people as a whole continue to suffer. "There's no salary, no job, no life," said a 31-year- old former soldier named after the country's former dictator Saddam Hussein, who saw his young son killed as his family fled Mosul for Irbil in Iraq's Kurdish region. On June 10, 2014, the Is- lamic State group took full control of Mosul, part of its lightning sweep from its ter- ritory in war-ravaged Syria and Iraq's Anbar province. Videos quickly emerged of the extremists waving their trademark black flags in pa- rades down Mosul's streets or driving Iraqi forces' U.S.- made Humvees, as darker films of their massing kill- ings followed. Weeks later, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Bagh- dadi purportedly spoke at Mosul's main mosque and the group declared a "ca- liphate" over territory it controlled, demanding the loyalty of the world's Mus- lims. A U.S.-led air cam- paign began in August targeting the group, the number of strikes now numbering around 1,900. While Shiite militias ad- vised by Iran and Iraqi forces have recaptured Ti- krit, Saddam's hometown, the battle on the ground ap- pears at the least locked in stalemate — or at the worst, not in Iraq's favor. Iraq still in disarray year a er loss of Mosul to IS DIVIDED COUNTRY | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2015 4 B