Top U.S. general says could recommend locating U.S. troops with Iraqis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday he would consider recommending putting U.S. forces with Iraqi troops to fight Islamic State if that would improve the chances of defeating the militants. "If it had an operational or strategic impact and we could reinforce success, that would be the basic framework within which I'd make a recommendation for additional forces to be co-located with Iraqi units," Marine General Joseph Dunford told a Senate hearing. Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, outlined four reasons it might be useful to put U.S. troops with Iraqi forces: increasing the coherence of the military campaign, ensuring logistics effectiveness, boosting intelligence awareness and improving combined arms delivery. (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati, Phil Stewart and David Alexander; Editing by Doina Chiacu)