WASHINGTON: The US is to send up to 450 military trainers to Iraq to help “train and advise” local forces fighting Islamic State, the White House has said.

President Barcak Obama made the decision following a request from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, it said.

The troops will be deployed to the Taqaddum military base in Anbar province. Daesh seized Ramadi — the capital of Anbar — in May.

The move is aimed at enabling more Iraqis — mostly Sunni tribal volunteers — to integrate into the Iraq Army and fight against Daesh.

“These new advisers will work to build capacity of Iraqi forces, including local tribal fighters, to improve their ability to plan, lead, and conduct operations” against IS in Anbar, the White House statement added.

Earlier, Jeb Bush said: “I believe that the efforts to date haven’t been strategic, that we don’t have a strategy — this may be the beginning of the strategy.”

The former Florida governor, who is expected to formally launch his bid for the Republican presidential nomination next week, has previously called Obama’s handling of Daesh a failure. Bush has previously suggested that US troops should be embedded with Iraqi forces to train them and identify targets and he reiterated this view during his trip to Berlin.

“It helps us with our intelligence gathering, it certainly helps with the morale and the ability to train the troops,” he said.”