WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. troops in Iraq should be doing more than training and advising Iraqi soldiers in the fight against Islamic State, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Tuesday.
Boehner, who recently returned from a Middle East trip with other lawmakers, stopped short of advocating a combat role.
"I wouldn't call it combat. I would call it 'plan and direct;' more engaged in helping the Iraqis fight the fight," the Republican Speaker told reporters.
He complained that U.S. military commanders were too constrained by the training and advising mandate.
Boehner said he did not know whether the 4,500 U.S. troops left in Iraq following the long war there should be augmented. But he added, "I just think there's more that we can do with limited risk and wouldn't require that many people."
Alarmed by the advance of Islamic State militants across Iraq, President Barack Obama began sending non-combatant troops back to Iraq in the summer for the first time since U.S. forces left the country in 2011.
Boehner said the Obama administration needs a clearer, "overarching" strategy for dealing with Islamic State throughout the region.
Boehner led a delegation to Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, during Congress' spring recess.
Boehner, a frequent critic of Obama's policies, said it was "an embarrassment" that Iraq turned to Iran to help oust Islamic State fighters from Tikrit.
Boehner said the Iraqis need more U.S. assistance to buy weapons and the region needs a more defined approach from the United States that should include an economic component.
But he said he did not have a new U.S. aid package in mind.
Meanwhile, Boehner said legislation authorizing the use of military force in the region was stalled in Congress.
"Without presidential engagement for broader authority, I don't think it can pass," Boehner said.