A rocket that landed within several hundred yards of USA troops at Qayara air base near Mosul may have contained mustard agent, it said.
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“We will be in a position to provide whatever support, whatever reinforcement, those forces need in order to be successful”, Dunford said. The 500 would be in addition to roughly 400 new personnel the US sent to Iraq in early September to prepare for the Mosul offensive.
The air base, recaptured from ISIS in July, is a pivotal staging ground for a highly anticipated attack on Mosul. While the Syrian city of Raqqa is considered the caliphate’s de facto capital, Mosul is the largest city under its control.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was branded a dead man by officials in Iran and Turkey has reportedly been spotted alive in Iraqi city Mosul. Coalition troops, including a small number of Americans, were several hundred yards from where the shell landed.
Iraqi forces have advanced swiftly through the Shirqat area since Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the operation on Tuesday morning.
With air support from a US-led coalition, the troops are now less than 3km from the town centre, according to Dawdah, who said he expected the campaign to be concluded within 48 hours. Islamic State has used weapons with a mustard agent about two dozen times.
No one is said to have been hurt in the attack while none of the military forces there have been reported as being exposed to the unsafe agent.
The top USA general said Thursday that an Islamic State rocket that hit a military base used by hundreds of US troops in northern Iraq contained chemical agents that cause human skin to blister. They typically have been used against Iraqi or Peshmerga forces or Iraqi civilians, officials said. It pledged to recapture the city this year.
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After it landed on the base, just south of Mosul, US troops tested it and got an initial reading for a chemical agent they believe is mustard gas. He added that “potentially” the rocket round was “within hundreds of yards” of the U.S. forces and “within the security perimeter” of the base.
