“The presence of foreign troops is an understandably combustible issue for Iraq; the scars of past battles are, for many Iraqis, equal to current battles against the Islamic State”, the report stated.
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The territorial gain, which followed the recapture of a key air base nearby at the weekend, further isolated Mosul in preparation for a government assault to recover Iraq’s second largest city 60 km (40 miles) to the north.
“With these additional USA forces I’m describing today, we’ll bring unique capability to the campaign and provide critical support to the Iraqi forces at a key moment in the fight”, Carter told a gathering of USA troops in Baghdad.
Moreover, Baghdad and Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, do not appear to have agreed on a plan for Mosul, and any significant participation by Kurdish or Shi’ite forces in a Mosul campaign, one US official said, “would create a whole new set of problems that the Abadi government is incapable of managing, or even mitigating”.
It is worthy to be mentioned here that Prime Minister Abadi has pledged to reclaim Mosul by the end of this year. Carter landed in Baghdad on an unannounced visit and says USA advisers are prepared to accompany Iraqi battalions, if needed, as those units move closer to the fight for Mosul.
Still, the latest US force increase comes less than three months after Washington announced it would dispatch about 200 more soldiers to accompany Iraqi troops advancing towards Mosul.
The Pentagon said the deployment was made to assist Iraqi forces as they prepare an offensive aimed at retaking Mosul from ISIL.
Islamic State, which regularly carries out such bombings in the capital and other parts of Iraq, where it seized swathes of territory in 2014, said in an online statement it had targeted the army.
“Forces from the 9th Armoured Division and the counter-terrorism service liberated Ajhala village north of Qayara base”, Obeidi said on Twitter. “It sort of shadows how involved the US military is or needs to be”.
Suicide bombings like the one in Baghdad on July 3 that killed almost 300 people, one of the largest attacks since the US -led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago, suggest the group could remain a long-term threat.
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A similar attack in Rashidiya on Tuesday, also claimed by the Sunni Islamist group, killed nine people.
