Iraqi government forces advancing on the Islamic State-held city of Mosul retook a village from IS on Tuesday and linked up along the Tigris river with army units pushing from a separate direction, Defence Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said.
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In April, Carter came to Baghdad on a similar trip to announce that Obama had given USA military advisers the approval to work closer to the front lines of the conflict with smaller units of Iraqi forces. They will assist Iraqi forces planning to encircle and eventually retake the biggest city anywhere that has fallen under IS’ control.
The additional troops will support the Iraqi forces as they move toward the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul, Carter said, Iraq’s second largest city and capital of the ISIS self-proclaimed caliphate in the country.
Specifically, the US forces will be used to secure and get up and running the Qayyarah West airfield, which lies about 40 miles south of Mosul, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.
The latest USA troop increase in Iraq comes just over two months after President Barack Obama announced the deployment of an extra 250 soldiers to Syria, adding to the 50 that were already on the ground. But the facilities are damaged by years of fighting, and may require repairs to be operational. They weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and demanded anonymity. But the Iraqis have been unable to prevent the Islamic State from carrying out devastating suicide attacks in Baghdad, including one earlier this month from which the death toll has reached 186.
The Sunni extremists, who consider Shiites heretics, swept across northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014, capturing large chunks of territory and plunging the country into its worst crisis since United States troops left at the end of 2011.
Carter called it a strategic victory.
“This contingent will help the Iraqis establish logistical springboard for their offensive in Mosul…” Marine Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin was killed at the fire base in March in an IS rocket attack.
Speaking to reporters at the weekend, Mr Carter said that the use of the air base would help create a “pincer movement” on Mosul, with Iraqi forces moving from the south and Kurdish peshmerga from the north and east.
Two sections of the Iraqi force met up after a pincer movement.
American forces are already sharing intelligence with their Iraqi counterparts.
Iraqi government forces deployed across Baghdad on Monday, closing off main roads and snarling traffic. They would still be behind front lines.
The IS claimed two attacks in Baghdad last week, including a massive truck bomb that hit a busy commercial area in Baghdad’s Karada neighborhood and killed at least 292 people.
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“In fact, it demonstrates (Islamic State’s) strength and long-term survival skills”, terrorism expert Hassan Hassan wrote in a recent article. As many as 186 were killed.
