REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has approved sending up to 1,500 more troops to Iraq, roughly doubling the number of US forces on the ground helping Iraqi and Kurdish forces battle the militant group Islamic State, US officials said on Friday.

Obama's decision greatly expands the scope of the US campaign and the geographic distribution of American forces, some of whom will head into Iraq's fiercely contested western Anbar province for the first time to act as advisers.

It also raises the stakes in Obama's first interactions with Congress after his Democratic Party was thumped by Republicans in mid-term elections this week. The White House said it would ask Congress for 1.6 billion USD for a new "Iraq Train and Equip Fund" and billions more for operations to battle the group.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said those funds would need to be approved before the first additional forces head to Iraq, something one official speculated could happen in just weeks.

"(Iraqi forces are) going on the offense now. And what this is designed to do is to help them continue to be able to do that, to improve their capability and their competence on the battlefield," Kirby said, stressing no American ground forces will take on combat roles.

Alarmed by the advance of Islamic State militants across Iraq, Obama began sending non-combatant troops back to Iraq in the summer for the first time since he withdrew US forces from the country in 2011.

At the time of the withdrawal, the Pentagon boasted of Iraqi military capabilities. But Iraqi forces crumbled in the face of Islamic State's offensive, exposing the toll sectarian strains and mismanagement took on the military.

Officials denied the new US troop buildup amounted to "mission creep" and said it was justified partly because of new Iraqi Shi'ite Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's efforts to reach out to Sunni tribesmen and new calls from Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric to rush to the Sunni tribes' aid. One Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to an Iraqi plan to "organize and equip 5,000 tribesmen in Anbar."

"This is now being openly discussed in Iraq and it's starting to happen," the official said.

About 1,400 U.S. troops are now on the ground, just below the previous limit of 1,600 troops. The new authorization gives the US military the ability to deploy up to 3,100 troops.

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