Midday Roundup: More U.S. troops joining the fight against ISIS

Boots on the ground. The United States will send a new commando unit to combat ISIS, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced Tuesday. The troops will conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and try to capture leaders of Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL).Carter wouldn’t specify the number of people in the commando unit but called it an expeditionary targeting force. The unit will work alongside Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga with the approval of Iraqi authorities. It may also operate in Syria.

Evangelical appointment. Ben Carson’s presidential campaign has hired evangelical author Johnnie Moore as an adviser on outreach to Christian voters. Moore served as the senior vice president and campus chaplain at Liberty University for several years and also worked with producer Mark Burnett on the television series A.D. Moore said he first met Carson when he gave a speech at Liberty in 2012: “I am so glad he is running. He is a great man who can provide the leadership needed by this great country.”

Dismissed. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the city’s top cop, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, Tuesday. The dismissal came a week after the release of a videotape showing a white police officer shooting a knife-wielding black suspect 16 times. Police held onto the tape for more than a year before releasing it, sparking days of tense but peaceful protests over an alleged cover-up. Emanuel noted the “undeniable fact that the public trust and the leadership of the department has been shaken and eroded.” Prosecutors have charged the officer, Jason Van Dyke, with first-degree murder in the October 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald.

Generous pledge. Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday his plans to donate to charity 99 percent of his family’s company stock, worth $45 billion. Zuckerberg made the commitment in an online letter to his newborn daughter, Max. “Like all parents, we want you to grow up in a world better than ours today,” Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, wrote. “Our society has an obligation to invest now.” The couple did not say when or to whom they would give the money, but they plan to announce more details after Zuckerberg returns from paternity leave.

Exclusive invitation. In a move that Russia considers a slap in the face, NATO has officially invited Montenegro to join its alliance. A Kremlin spokesperson denounced the expansion of NATO, which formed after World War II to help defend Europe and the West from the spread of communism out of the Soviet Union. Russia said it would end military cooperation with Montenegro if it accepted the invitation. The small country in the Balkans applied for NATO membership nine years ago, after it gained independence from Serbia.