![Operation against ISIL by Iraqi govt forces and Shi'ite militias in Jurf al-Sakhar Iraq Army ISIS Islamic State](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iraq-army-islamic-state-isis.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
By Dan Kedmey
Iraq is training 20,000 soldiers for a spring counter-offensive against the militant group that has taken over large swaths of the country, according to a new report, and working in close consultation with the United States to do it.
The plan, described to the New York Times by at least a dozen unnamed sources, involves hundreds of American military advisers stationed in Baghdad to help the government there take on the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).
“It is a balance between letting them develop their own plan and take ownership for it,” one U.S. military official said.
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