Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford are expected to announce the operation this morning in a press conference at the Pentagon.
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Carter would not provide any details on how or where the Islamic State leader was killed. He said recent advances by the Iraqi military, Kurdish peshmerga and Shiite militia forces are a part of overall preparations for that assault, but he did not say when that would begin. The U.S. has said it will take many months to prepare Iraqi forces for such a long and complicated offensive, reported the AP.
“By no means would I say that we are about to break the back of ISIL or that the fight is over”, Dunford said but added that there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic.
Asked about the effect of the killings of key Islamic State militants, Carter said, “Leaders can be replaced”.
Who says there are no US combat troops in Iraq?
Haji Imam was “an [Islamic State] senior leader, serving as a finance minister and who is also responsible for some external affairs and plots”.
He said al-Qaduli has been associated with IS dating back to its earliest iteration as al-Qaida in Iraq. He said he had worked under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as a liaison for operations in Pakistan. He said he was not aware of any link between the senior leader and this week’s terrorist attacks in Belgium.
This will mark the latest in a series of United States escalations in Iraq, which have put the United States far above the 3,870 soldier limit they negotiated with Iraq. Whether measured in terms of the ground ISIL holds or the resources it can call upon, counter-ISIL forces are making progress in both Iraq and Syria, the chairman said.
Peshmerga commander Najat Ali said Iraqi forces had taken a couple of villages without any resistance but that Islamic State was putting up a fight in two others, and had set oil ablaze to produce smoke as a shield against coalition air strikes. In November, the Pentagon said an airstrike in Libya killed Abu Nabil, another top IS leader.
Another questioner noted that, unlike most previous USA locations inside existing Iraqi bases, Fire Base Bell is a separate US installation and the Marines were not just acting in defense of the American troops, but provided offense support.
His answer did not account, however, for what will happen when the Iraqi forces advance beyond the range of US artillery support – considered a critical element of liberating a city the size of Mosul and a capability the Iraqi troops don’t have – and whether USA forces will have to play a more direct role in the forward fighting areas then.
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On Monday, Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said of Firebase Bell, “This is the first time we’ve established a spot that is only American”. But he also said it did not signify a change of mission for USA ground forces in Iraq. Those options are still under discussion in the Pentagon and have not yet officially been submitted to the White House for approval.
