ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The Army this week announced deployments for several units this spring and summer, including the first deployment of the new 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade.

Soldiers with the 1st SFAB out of Fort Benning, Ga., will deploy this spring to provide training and advising assistance to Afghan National Security Forces. The specialized unit is the first of its kind in the Army and the spring deployment will be its first. The second SFAB unit is being created at Fort Bragg, N.C., but has not received deployment orders.

The fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been enormously successful and has dealt a blow to the organization and its fighters

The Islamic State militant group “is down really to its last 10 percent of territory,” said Brett McGurk, a special presidential envoy who leads the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS.

The U.S. Army general in charge of joint land forces in Iraq is optimistic about the fight against Islamic State group militants.

An Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman reports “steady progress” in eradicating Islamic State militants from Iraq

Soldiers assigned to brigades in Louisiana, Georgia and Texas have been tapped for rotations to Kuwait, Afghanistan and Europe before the end of this year.

Approximately 2,100 soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, which is stationed at Fort Polk, La., will deploy to Iraq, becoming the first brigade-sized unit to deploy under the Army’s Associated Units Pilot Program.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis says the U.S. “will continue standing by the Iraqi people and their military.”

“We in this coalition will remain steadfast with our Iraqi allies all the way through the defeat of ISIS,” Mattis said during a meeting in Baghdad with Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve commander, and Brett McGurk, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS.

Use of high-tech munitions in current operations in Iraq has depleted the Army’s stockpile more than planned, causing a scramble to regenerate the supply.