U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter flew into Iraq on Monday to discuss offering more help in the fight against Islamic State, possibly including sending in more U.S. troops, officials said.
U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter speaks at the closing ceremony of a
U.S.-Philippine military exercise dubbed "Balikatan" (shoulder to
shoulder) in Quezon City, Metro Manila April 15, 2016. REUTERS/Erik De
Castro
BAGHDAD: U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter flew into Iraq on
Monday to discuss offering more help in the fight against Islamic
State, possibly including sending in more U.S. troops, officials said.
Carter would meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and
Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi and discuss ways to build on recent
gains against the militant group, which also controls large parts of
neighbouring Syria, the U.S. officials added.
They declined to say what kind of assistance would be offered, but said it would likely include more U.S. troops on the ground.“Whenever we’re talking about additional capabilities, it usually means some small numbers of additional troops,” the U.S. official said before the unannounced visit.
Iraq's army, trained by the U.S. military officers and backed by air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition, last week retook the Hit region, pushing it further north along the Euphrates valley.
The Iraqi government has designated Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still under Islamic State control, as its next major target. It retook the western city of Ramadi in December.
"The fight of Iraq is the fight for Mosul. Mosul is the end
game in Iraq," a senior U.S. defence official said, on condition of
anonymity. "It’s a very large urban scenario ... We are going to need to
be more aggressive, the Iraqis are asking us to be more aggressive.”
(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Andrew Heavens)
- Reuters
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