The Defense Department will deploy 600 additional troops to Iraq to assist in the U.S.-led coalition campaign to retake Mosul from the Islamic State, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.
The soldiers will provide logistics support for Iraqi forces to prepare for the offensive, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters, according to NBC News.
The impending deployment increases the number of American personnel officially deployed to Iraq from 4,400 to roughly 5,000, not including some 1,500 additional troops in Iraq who are on temporary assignments or not included in formal military tallies.
The announcement arrived a week after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi met privately with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
"American President Barack Obama was consulted on a request from the Iraqi government for a final increase in the number of trainers and advisers under the umbrella of the international coalition in Iraq," Abadi said in a statement.
The Obama administration has maintained that ground troops in Iraq are not engaging in direct combat, but are rather serving in advise-and-assist roles to local forces.
The majority of the added troops will be assigned to a U.S. military logistics hub south of Mosul. ISIS militants deployed a weapon containing a mustard agent against the base last Tuesday, though no U.S. troops were injured.
Iraqi forces have already begun an operation in Shirqat, a town north of Baghdad, to further damage ISIS supply lines to Mosul in preparation for a larger battle.