#ISIS Forces Repel Counteroffensive at Tikrit, Bring Down Iraqi Helicopter — #Iraq

I don't see photos of the downed copter, but it's being reported at Haaretz, "ISIS militants shoot down Iraqi chopper as Tikrit assault enters 2nd day," and the Irish Times, "Militants bring down army helicopter over Tikrit."

Meanwhile, jihadists have repelled the government's counteroffensive.

At the Washington Post, "Militants repel Iraqi forces’ attempt to recapture Tikrit," and the Wall Street Journal, "Iraqi Forces Stalled in Push Against Militants, Say Officials: Government's Official Statements Say Tikrit Has Been 'Cleansed'":

BAGHDAD—Iraqi security forces were locked in a standoff outside the city of Tikrit on Sunday morning, local security officials said, as the military's most muscular effort to beat back a three-week-old Sunni insurgency appeared to stall.

The military offensive, which began Saturday afternoon after weeks of preparation, was hampered by extensive land-mine formations laid by insurgents on the main road between Samarra, the provisional headquarters of Iraqi forces north of Baghdad, and Tikrit, according to security forces at the Samarra Command Center.

Reports from the ground contradicted government statements carried by the official television station, which said Iraqi security forces had "cleansed" Tikrit and were preparing to recapture all of the surrounding Salah Al Din province in the coming hours.

But as of Sunday morning, Iraqi forces still hadn't succeeded in taking Tikrit, the birthplace of former President Saddam Hussein and a flash point in the Sunni-led resistance against American forces following the 2003 invasion, according to residents of the city...

Continue reading.

More at Euronews, "Tikrit battle continues as Iraq attempts to recapture town from ISIL."

Ahmed Abu Khattala Pleads Not Guilty

Yeah, "not guilty."

I'm sure it'd be a riot if the dude was acquitted. Indeed, leftists would cheer the verdict.

At LAT, "Suspect in Benghazi attack pleads not guilty; more charges expected."

Outrage Over SFSU 'Race and Resistance' Professor Rabab Abdulhadi

Professor Rabab Abdulhadi teaches in the "Race and Resistance" program of the Ethnic Studies Department at San Francisco State University.

AMCHA (the Israeli Center for Holocaust Survivors and the Second Generation) is protesting Professor Abdulhadi's recent trip to Jordan, where she met with Leila Khaled of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which was financed with tax-payer funding.

Daniel Mael has the background, at Truth Revolt, "SFSU Professors Met with Terrorists Tied to American Deaths on Taxpayer's Dime":

A California Public Records Act inquiry revealed that multiple professors from San Francisco State University met with terrorists on a trip funded by the university. Professors Rabab Abdulhadi and Joanne Barker, along with Abdulhadi's husband, met with terrorists Leila Khaled and Sheikh Raed Salah during the "Labor Delegation to Palestine 2014" which began on January 5th, 2014 and concluded on February 14th, 2014.

Eight organizations- the AMCHA Initiative, Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Simon Wiesenthal Center Campus Outreach, StandWithUs, and Zionist Organization of America- sent a letter to CSU Chancellor Timothy White, SFSU President Leslie Wong, CSU Vice Chancellor and Chief Audit Officer Larry Mendel and CSU Attorney Carrie Hemphill Reith concerning the matter.

Leila Khaled is "a convicted hijacker and the most famous member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization responsible for 159 terrorist acts such as bombings, armed assault and assassinations, resulting in numerous injuries and deaths including those of more than 20 US citizens," the groups noted.

Sheikh Raed Salah has been convicted of funding the terrorist organization Hamas and sat in prison from 2003 - 2005. In the letter to school administration the organizations also highlighted that, "In 2008, Salah was charged with incitement to violence and racism. In 2010, Salah was also arrested for his participation on the Mavi Marmara, part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Salah was recently incarcerated again on charges of incitement to violence."

The letter to the university administration outlined Abdulhadi's dishonest approach to obtaining funding...

More here, "AMCHA and Jewish Organizations Write President Wong about Professor Abdulhadi and SFSU Faculty Event Condoning Terrorism."

Kenneth Monteiro, the Dean of SFSU College of Ethnic Studies, has defended Abdulhadi, "Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies Commentary on Free Speech and AMCHA Initiative’s attacks on students and faculty across California Campuses." And at Truth Revolt, "SFSU Ethnic Studies Dean: I Stand With Pro-Terror Research."

And here's the response from Professor Abdulhadi, "Public Statement: Rabab Abdulhadi Responds to AMCHA Allegations." And get a load of this:

AMCHA has predictably focused a huge amount of attention on our meeting with Leila Khaled, in an attempt to demonize the delegation and to damage my reputation. So let me clarify the purpose of meeting with Khaled. Khaled is a Palestinian feminist icon. She is therefore relevant to my research and pedagogy, both of which aim to revise Palestinian women’s studies by critiquing conventional wisdom within the feminist canon. In my courses, I aim to provide a counter narrative to the orientalist depictions of Palestinian, and other Arab and Muslim, women as weak and docile—and men as bloodthirsty and misogynist. To this end, I screen several films including “Leila Khaled: Hijacker?” and open these classes to the public.

Orientalist? Sounds like terror-supporting Middle East scholar (the late) Edward Said.

And screening films like "Leila Khaled: Hijacker?" Might as well screen "Triumph of the Will" and "open these classes to the public."

In any case, back over at Truth Revolt, "SFSU: We'll Fight 'Censorship' of Taxpayer-Funded Pro-Terror Trips by Professors."

Clearly, taxpayer monies funded meetings with terrorists. If such advocacy is legal under current law, the law should be changed. However, I don't buy this woman's explanation that all of this was on the up and up. You've pretty much lost the debate when you start screaming "McCarthyism."

GRAPHIC VIDEO: Shiite Forces Execute Scores of Sunni Prisoners in Tal Afar, #Iraq

Uh, about that new civil war in Iraq.

Arwa Damon reports, for CNN, "Iraqi witnesses recall horrors in Tal Afar, Mosul."

The report cites Amnesty International, "Iraq: scores of Sunni detainees summarily killed by government and Shi'a militias - new testimonies."

Before fleeing from Tal Afar, Maliki troops executed these #Sunni prisoners in the prison, #Iraq (#ISIS, #Iraqwar) pic.twitter.com/6LDf3mlk0I

— Abu Umar (@AbuUmar8246) June 28, 2014

Dozens of Casualities in Massive Bomb Blast at Marketplace Near Damascus, Syria

Video at Reuters, "Two car bombs hit Syrian market in Douma," and Vice, "Car Bomb Explosion Leaves Dozens Hurt in Eastern Damascus."

And according to the Daily Sabah, "CAR BOMB KILLS TWO, INJURES DOZENS NEAR DAMASCUS":

CAIRO – Two people were killed and dozens wounded when a car bomb exploded in a town on the outskirts of Damascus on Saturday, a rights watchdog reported.

The bomb struck a crowded market area in Douma town, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Earlier this month, a bombing killed eight people in Douma.

Rebels accused the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) of carrying out the attack against other Islamist groups fighting to oust the regime of President Bashar al-Assad...

And at Press TV, "Two killed as blast hits Syrian town of Douma."

The death toll could be higher.

#Iraq Troops Mount Defense to Save Baghdad

At the Los Angeles Times, "Iraqi forces dig in to keep militants from capturing Baghdad":

If the Sunni Muslim insurgents lurking west of Baghdad decide to rush the Iraqi capital, Ahmed Ali knows the quickest route runs past his fruit stand.

Peering at the highway over mounds of watermelon and bananas, Ali watches Iraqi army pickup trucks and personnel carriers race by — headed, he hopes, toward a battle somewhere.

“I feel relief when I see them,” said Ali, a Shiite Muslim in his 50s who took refuge in Abu Ghraib this year after insurgents seized his village. “Somehow, I feel the security forces will protect me.”

Facing a methodical onslaught by an Al Qaeda splinter group and antigovernment militants, soldiers, police and Shiite militias are digging in around Baghdad and at strategic points outside the capital in a desperate bid to prevent the pillars of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government from falling to the insurgents.

With the deployment of security forces, bolstered by tens of thousands of volunteer fighters, Iraqi military officials say, Baghdad is not in immediate danger of a major attack. U.S. officials are less certain. Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said this week that as the insurgents “continue to press into central and southern Iraq … they are still a legitimate threat to Baghdad.”

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "#Iraq Army Mounts Counteroffensive in Tikrit, Mosul."

VIDEO: Marine Capt. William Mahoney Lands AV-8B Harrier on Tiny Bench After Landing Gear Malfunction

Simply amazing.

At the Navy Times, "Marine Harrier pilot sticks incredible landing on tiny bench at sea."

Bin Laden's Caliphate Rises in #Iraq

At the Wall Street Journal, "The Caliphate Rises":

The jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) continue to consolidate their grip on Sunni Iraq. They control most major cities, they took over the border crossings with Jordan this week, and now they're re-opening banks and government offices and establishing political control.

Welcome to the new Middle East caliphate, a state whose leader is considered the religious and political successor to the prophet Mohammed and is thus sovereign over all Muslims. The last time a caliphate was based in Baghdad was 1258, the year it was conquered by the ravaging Mongols. Now the jihadists aim to do the ravaging, and it isn't clear that the Obama Administration has a plan to depose them.

It's important to understand how large a setback for American interests and security this is. Establishing a caliphate in the Middle East was the main political project of Osama bin Laden's life. Current al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri once said a new caliphate would signal a turning of world history "against the empire of the United States and the world's Jewish government."

In 2005, a Jordanian journalist named Fouad Hussein wrote a book on al Qaeda's "second generation," which focused on the thinking of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by U.S. forces in 2006. The book described a seven-phase plan, beginning with an "awakening" of Islamic consciousness with the September 11 attacks. Among other predictions, it foresaw an effort to "clear plans to partition Syria, Lebanon and Jordan into sectarian statelets to reshape the region."

In phase four, timed to happen between 2010 and 2013, the Arab world's secular regimes would be toppled. And then? Phase five would see the "declaration of the caliphate or Islamic state" sometime between 2013 and 2016. This was to be followed by "total war," or "the beginning of the confrontation between faith and disbelief, which would begin in earnest after the establishment of the Islamic caliphate."

Keep reading.

And keep all of this in mind next time you hear some leftist commentator claiming that ISIS isn't al Qaeda.

More, "#ISIS is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Dream Come True in Iraq."

#Iraq Army Mounts Counteroffensive in Tikrit, Mosul

From Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air, "Iraq launches offensive on ISIS in Tikrit, Mosul."

And at the New York Times, "In New Show of Force, Iraqi Army Drives Back Insurgents in Major City":

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Army on Saturday drove Islamic extremists from the center of a major city in central Iraq, for the first time mounting a concerted assault against insurgents who had charged to within 50 miles of Baghdad.

Independent sources, including local officials and witnesses, confirmed that an Iraqi Army counteroffensive had driven militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from the center of Tikrit, including from government buildings as well as from major roads and other positions throughout the city.

But fighting was still continuing, with Iraqi war planes bombing targets inside the city late in the afternoon.

Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, with a largely Sunni population of 250,000, is in the Tigris River Valley, 100 miles north of Baghdad. It has long been a stronghold of antigovernment Sunnis in Iraq, and losing it would sever the insurgents’ lines of communication to Mosul and Syria. It could also strand some of their fighters in pockets south of Tikrit.

Some Iraqi military analysts said they thought it was no coincidence that army’s counteroffensive was launched now, with 180 of the 300 American advisers ordered to Iraq by President Obama arriving over the past three days, but Iraqi officials denied that there was any American role.

If the advances by the Iraqi Army are sustained, and even built upon, it would provide a much needed morale boost for an army that lost as much as a fourth of its soldiers and equipment when ISIS overran Mosul, and has lurched from one embarrassment to another since then. It has given up the oil-rich city of Kirkuk to Kurdish forces. And it has lost all of its border crossing points with Syria and Jordan to the militants, ceding to them control of most of four major provinces spanning more than 200 miles from north to south.

A spokesman for the Iraqi military, Gen. Qassim Atta, claimed that ISIS militants were withdrawing and that they had buried their dead on the grounds of a former Hussein palace in Tikrit. “Reports and surveillance show that ISIS leaders have ordered a retreat,” he said...

More.

And at Business Week, "Iraqi Army Starts Assault to Dislodge Sunni Militants."

More Than Two-Thirds of American Youth Wouldn't Qualify for Military Service, Pentagon Says

This is interesting.

At WSJ, "Recruits' Ineligibility Tests the Military":

More than two-thirds of America's youth would fail to qualify for military service because of physical, behavioral or educational shortcomings, posing challenges to building the next generation of soldiers even as the U.S. draws down troops from conflict zones.

The military deems many youngsters ineligible due to obesity, lack of a high-school diploma, felony convictions and prescription-drug use for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But others are now also running afoul of standards for appearance amid the growing popularity of large-scale tattoos and devices called ear gauges that create large holes in earlobes.

A few weeks ago, Brittany Crippen said she tried to enlist in the Army, only to learn that a tattoo of a fish on the back of her neck disqualified her. Determined to join, the 19-year-old college student visited a second recruiting center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and was rejected again.

Apologetic recruiters encouraged her to return after removing the tattoo, a process she was told would take about year. "I was very upset," Ms. Crippen said...

More.

I like tattoos, although I personally never seriously considered getting one, even back in the day. But those "ear gauge" things? So disgusting. I can't even look at people who have them. They're literally deformed.

Are You an American Citizen?

Some drivers are refusing to identify themselves as U.S. citizens when asked by the Border Patrol.

At KABC-15 Phoenix, "Refusing to answer Border Patrols' questions could have consequences, says attorney."

Sophisticated Tactics Key to #Isis Strength

A report at the Financial Times, via Mike Shedlock, "Divided Iraq Inevitable; Isis Targets Baghdad Green Zone; Obama's Inane Weapon's Proposal."

It's a lot of cut-and-paste, but here's the interesting part on ISIS, from FT:

“They [Isis] are going against a supposedly professional military force with a speed and ferocity that has the Iraqis taking to their heels,” says Patrick Skinner, a former counter-terrorism officer at the Central Intelligence Agency and now analyst at the Soufan Group. “The Iraqi Security Forces [ISF] are mind-crushingly inept.”

Of immediate concern is the seizure by the jihadis of a range of high-grade military equipment. A force once lightly armed with an arsenal of shoulder-held missile launchers and anti-aircraft guns mounted on pick-up trucks, Isis is now far more comprehensively kitted out, thanks to its raids on the depots of the Iraqi army’s second motorised division.

Identifying exactly what the jihadi group has in its armoury is complicated because it has been wildly embellishing its capabilities for effect on social media. But even a conservative list – corroborated by intelligence and military officials – is worrying enough. It includes unknown quantities of M114 Humvees, other armoured personnel carriers and Stinger missiles, as well as a huge cache of explosives and small arms and an unspecified number of M198 155m howitzer artillery pieces with a conventional range of 22km.

In July 2012, Isis – then still known as al-Qaeda in Iraq – began the first of two intensive insurgency campaigns that paved the way for its current fight.

“These were intelligent campaigns in design: well-resourced, prepared, executed and adapted,” says Jessica Lewis, a veteran US army intelligence officer who served in Iraq and is now research director at the Institute for the Study of War. “These are not things I might associate with a terrorist organisation. These are things I associate with an army.”

All of which raises questions about just how big Isis is. US intelligence officials posit a central fighting force of 3,000. Military and intelligence analysts put the minimum size of Isis’s larger force at 7,000 to 10,000. “They are not spreading themselves too thinly,” says Ms Lewis.

“They have matched personnel to their objectives carefully.”

As to what those objectives are, Isis’s attack pattern now seems to point squarely in one direction.

“Isis has uncommitted forces proximate to Baghdad,” says Ms Lewis. “They always meant to establish control. They always meant to break the state. They want Baghdad.” And specifically, she adds, the government-protected Green Zone...

Embassy Threats: Overseas Facilities May Face Greater Risks Due to Gaps in Security-Related Activities

At the Daily Signal, "GAO Report: U.S. Embassies at Risk Because of Security Gaps":

Security at U.S. diplomatic posts is falling short, and Benghazi is only the most visible example.

A new report on “Diplomatic Security” by the Government Accountability Office — GAO-14-655 — demonstrates the problem is systemic, leaving U.S. personnel serving overseas at unnecessary risk. At a time of rising security threats from metastasizing Al Qaeda spinoffs and other terrorist groups, this problem must be addressed immediately at the State Department.

According to the report, State conducts a range of activities to manage risk at overseas work facilities, including the setting of security standards. But GAO found State lacked a fully developed risk management policy to coordinate these activities. It is unclear what standards apply to some facilities, and in others, it took eight years for standards to be identified.

The report identified other deficiencies, including...

Keep reading.

What Did Happen Exactly to James Hong, David Wang, and George Chen?

I'm really disliking this 20/20 Barbara Walters interview with Peter Rodger, Elliot Rodger's dad.

I might blog it tomorrow. I think Mr. Rodger is lying about how "surprised" he was at his son's rampage. He even sees his son as the "victim," not the perpetrator. (Or he thought his son was the "victim" when he first got news from Isla Vista.)

Meanwhile, here's the front-page report out a week or so ago at the Los Angeles Times "UCSB friends were victims of circumstance."

Also, "Elliot Rodger may have used knife, hammer, machete in killings, attorney says."

U.S. Deploys Armed Drones Over Baghdad — #Iraq

David Martin reports, for CBS Evening News:

Suicide Bomber Kills Six in Kirkuk, #Iraq

Intense scene.

Yesterday, at Russia Today, "Six die in northern Kirkuk, as ISIS militants fight bloody war in Iraq."

Obama Pitches a Shutout at the Supreme Court on Recess Appointments

A great editorial from this morning's Wall Street Journal, "Senate 9, President 0":

The Supreme Court handed President Obama his 13th unanimous loss in two years on Thursday, and this one may be the most consequential. All nine Justices voted to overturn Mr. Obama's non-recess recess appointments as an unconstitutional abuse of power.

Over nearly 238 years of American history, the Supreme Court has never had to review the President's authority to temporarily fill vacant executive offices when Congress is adjourned. Mr. Obama's 2012 maneuver to void the Senate's advice and consent role triggered a judicial intercession, and defeats at the High Court are seldom as total as this one...

Keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "Supreme Court Limits Presidential Power in Recess Appointments."

Obama's Bulked-Up Plan to Aid Rebels Deepens U.S. Role in #Syria

Following-up on my last post, "#ISIS Commander Abu Omar Photographed in Tent Marked 'U.S. Agency for International Development'."

Now here's more at the Wall Street Journal, "Obama Administration Deepens U.S. Role in Syria and Iraq: Funding and Arming Fighters Presents Risks, Officials Say":

PARIS—The Obama administration ended the week deeply immersed in stemming crises in Iraq and Syria as it launches a new strategy that American and Arab officials acknowledge could be risky for the U.S. and its closest Mideast allies.

Days of high-stakes Middle East diplomacy on a trip Secretary of State John Kerry completed Friday, combined with a $500 million plan for supporting Syrian rebels announced the day before by the White House, outline a markedly expanded U.S. role in the region's chaotic security and political landscape.

A primary risk for the administration is that much of the strategy rests on the removal of Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from office, an outcome that remains deeply uncertain, according to these officials, as Baghdad embarks next week on the task of picking a new national government.

Washington's new approach also entangles the administration in a volatile thicket of interests held by America's friends and foes. Taking on a larger share of responsibility in Iraq and Syria, President Barack Obama finds himself funding a war against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, but aligned with the Syrian strongman in the fight against Islamic extremists who are seizing control across Iraq.

"It's a devilishly difficult circumstance to confront," said former Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad. "My experience in that part of the world is you better be very modest about what you think you are going to achieve…in part because we're stepping into what is in essence a family feud."

Mr. Kerry ended his weeklong trip to the Middle East and Europe on Friday in Saudi Arabia, in a visit that brought the Iraq and Syria crises into a single frame. The U.S. diplomat held meetings in the Red Sea city of Jeddah with Saudi King Abdullah as well as with Ahmed Jarba, head of Syria's main political opposition coalition.

Mr. Kerry noted that Mr. Jarba "represents a tribe that reaches right into Iraq," and would be crucial to countering the insurgents of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS. Like King Abdullah's mother and some of his wives, Mr. Jarba is a member of the Shammar tribe, whose ranks sprawl across the adjoining borders of Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Jarba, however, said the situation in Iraq is different than Syria. He said Mr. Maliki's divisive approach calls for "greater efforts on the part of the U.S. and regional powers to address the situation in Iraq."  Mr. Kerry, in the week's meetings with Middle East leaders in Paris, Baghdad, Erbil and Jeddah, sought to forge a regional consensus among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds to create a new Iraqi government that is more representative of the country's three main communities and unified in the fight against ISIS.

But after a week of intense pressure, the Iraqi leader so far has offered no sign that he is willing to leave office. Many U.S. and Arab officials acknowledge that Washington and its allies may not be able to refrain from military action against ISIS while Baghdad sorts out its political divisions, due to advances by the al Qaeda-linked militia.

If Mr. Maliki does leave office in the selection process that begins next week in Baghdad, the administration will face a vexing choice: Get more deeply involved in a country that has little chance of holding together, or watch 10 years of U.S. investment disappear in the carnage.

U.S. officials also are contemplating military strikes against ISIS sites in Syria, a move Mr. Obama has struggled for years to avoid. Washington's closest Mideast allies—whose support Mr. Obama critically needs to execute his Iraq strategy—are pressing the White House to strike ISIS inside Syria.

"If there are bad guys and they represent a threat, you have to hit them wherever they are," said a senior Arab official who has taken part in discussions about ISIS with the U.S. in recent days. "I think they understand this now. I also think they understand how dangerous not dealing with them is."

New Emmy Rossum Pics

Following up from Monday, "Emmy Rossum Spotted in West Hollywood."

Here's more of the young lady at Popoholic, "Emmy Rossum Puts on a Ridiculously Sexy Post-Workout Show!"

#ISIS Commander Abu Omar Photographed in Tent Marked 'U.S. Agency for International Development'

It's not a new photo. Pamela Geller had this last September, "Al Qaeda group in Syria enjoying USAID." As did Robert Spencer, "Al Qaeda-linked Syria group enjoying USAID?":

In any case, if this photo is real, it indicates yet again that our leadership in Washington is utterly clueless, and that their assurances that we are aiding only “moderates” are completely hollow.

According to the Religious Freedom Coalition:

The tent is part of the “non-lethal” aid that President Barack Obama bragged about sending to Syria’s “legitimate” resistance and civilians. Most news sites say the photo “purports” to be of Kavkaz wa Sham, however, the placement of the shadows clearly shows that this photo has not been photo-shopped.

Whatever. Regardless of the authenticity of the photo, Abu Omar is indeed in Syria, as reported earlier at the Long War Journal, "Chechen commander leads Muhajireen Brigade in Syria." And at the BBC, "Syria crisis: Omar Shishani, Chechen jihadist leader."

According to Wikipedia, Abu Omar:

...was named commander of the northern sector of Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the summer of 2013. Units under his command have participated in major assaults against Syrian military bases in and around Aleppo, including the capture of Menagh Airbase in August 2013.[2] He is considered "one of the most influential military leaders of the Syrian opposition forces."

This is all the more important now in light of the Obama administration's approval of at least $500 million in military aid for the "moderate" rebels in Syria. See the Wall Street Journal, "Obama Proposes $500 Million to Aid Syrian Rebels: Program to Train and Equip Moderate Opposition Would Expand U.S. Role in Civil War":

WASHINGTON—The White House on Thursday proposed a major program to train and arm moderate Syrian rebels, in a significant expansion of the U.S. role in a civil war that officials fear is bleeding into Iraq and across the region.

The Obama administration requested $500 million—a larger amount than expected—to aid the Syrian opposition, reflecting growing U.S. alarm at the expanding strength of Islamist forces in Syria, who in recent weeks have asserted control of large parts of neighboring Iraq and now pose threats to U.S. allies in the region.

Coming on the heels of a decision to send 300 military advisers to Iraq, the Syrian rebel training elevates the U.S. role in the Middle East.

The proposal amounts to a major U-turn by the administration, which had sought until now to limit its involvement in the war.

However, the expanded U.S. involvement will be on President Barack Obama's terms, by emphasizing the use of partner forces, and not the direct use of American combat forces.

Speaking at a town-hall meeting in Minneapolis on Thursday, Mr. Obama emphasized that he didn't want U.S. forces fighting in the Middle East, but said recent violence has focused attention on the region.

"We've got to pay attention to the threats that are emanating from the chaos in the Middle East," Mr. Obama said.

Officials stressed there are hurdles to overcome before the expanded Syrian rebel program goes into effect, including obtaining congressional approval; figuring out how to effectively vet large numbers of rebel fighters so the U.S. doesn't end up training extremists; and persuading countries in the region to host the effort.

Officials said the program may not actually begin until next year. They said the first batch of fighters could complete training roughly six to eight months after the proposed program is authorized and funded by Congress.

Still, the move amounts to an about face by an administration that had sought to strictly limit its role in the Syrian civil war.  Related Iraq Parliament to Start Talks on New Government Think Tank: Addressing the Conflict in Syria Is the Way to Move Forward in Iraq...

Yeah, "vetting" the extremists might be important, yo.