Wednesday’s session in Stuttgart was the latest in a series with partners on strategies for increasing assistance to the Iraqis, including the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, as they seek to recapture the northern Islamic State stronghold of Mosul.
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USA forces and their allies risk more losses in the battle to defeat the Islamic State even though they are trying to avoid direct ground combat with the radical militants, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. Jaber Yawer, the Kurdish peshmerga spokesman, told The Associated Press that the American was killed by IS sniper fire near the town of Teleskof during an IS attack Tuesday that also involved a number of auto bombs.
In March, the Pentagon announced the establishment of small U.S. Marine base outside Mosul.
“That part of the peshmerga front came under attack. and they found themselves in a firefight”, Carter said.
Maj. Gen. Azad Jalil, a peshmerga officer, said Islamic State fighters breached Kurdish lines with more than 10 vehicle bombs, also using bulldozers to push through.
Carter said he had proposed that the anti-ISIS coalition hold another meeting in Washington this summer.
A US military official said the American was killed while performing his duty as an adviser to Kurdish Peshmerga troops.
Keating, an Arizona native, was the third US service member to be killed in combat against the Islamic State. “They opened the way for us to retreat, then one of their vehicles was hit” with a rocket-propelled grenade. “I heard he died after”, he said.
In late April, President Barack Obama announced he would send an additional 250 special operations forces to Syria, greatly expanding the USA presence on the ground there to help draw in more Syrian fighters to combat Islamic State.
Carter and the 11 allies are discussing ways of accelerating the war against the militants in Iraq and Syria as coalition-backed Iraq forces embark on an offensive to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, from the group.
Both Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Carter have recently visited Baghdad in an effort to resolve internal political strife and concentrate on the effort to defeat the Islamic State group.
Carter arrived in Stuttgart, Germany, to preside over a ceremony that sees a new commander of US European Command, Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, installed.
“These risks will continue. but allowing ISIL safe haven would carry greater risk for us all”, Carter added, using an acronym for Islamic State.
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Information for this article was contributed by Susannah George, Robert Burns, Deb Riechmann, Sinan Salaheddin and Balint Szlanko of The Associated Press and by Loveday Morris, Dan Lamothe and Mustafa Salim, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and William Branigin of The Washington Post.
