More US troops are on the way to Iraq to aid the country’s armed forces in the upcoming offensive against the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced during a surprise visit to the country.
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Yesterday, visiting U.S. defence secretary Ash Carter announced that Washington will send 560 more troops to Iraq to help battle IS. “Mosul is the prize”, said Col. Chris Garver, a US military spokesman in Baghdad.
It is also only 40 miles south of Mosul, the last urban bastion for ISIS and the second largest city in Iraq, making it a key strategic position in retaking the city.
On this, his fifth trip to the Iraqi capital, Carter was greeted at his plane in Baghdad by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones and MacFarland. ISIS seized Mosul in June 2014.
Carter announced the additional troop surge after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Kurdish regional government President Masoud Barzani and Iraqi defense minister Khaled al-Obaidi. He likened Qayara to the eastern city of Makhmour, where US troops set up a fire base for artillery to support advancing Iraqi units.
Earlier plans to consolidate forces in Kabul and Bagram were scrapped amid resurgent Taliban fighting and the growing presence of Islamic State militant, including many that simply switched allegiance from one insurgent group to another.
US officials said that American advisers have already been working at the brigade level with Iraqi special operations forces, but they have not yet accompanied Iraqi Army brigades, USA officials said.
On the Syrian side, Shaddadi, located on the road from Raqqah to Mosul, also was deemed critical so that Islamic State’s core was “severed in half”, Carter said, stifling movement of people and supplies between the two cities.
Asked how long America will continue to send more forces to the fight, Carter said that the U.S.is determined to defeat IS, and if commanders need for more troops, “I’ll ask the president for them”. A massive truck bombing struck a bustling commercial area in a Baghdad’s predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Karada, killing 292 people one of the deadliest attacks since the 2003 US -led invasion.
“We will provide more if and when the Iraqi Security Forces can make good use of them, and Prime Minister Abadi requests them”, Carter said. A new “Nineveh Liberation Operations Center” has been set up to coordinate the offensive, complete with dozens of USA and British advisers.
Carter’s offer comes after a July 3 bombing in central Baghdad that killed at least 292 people, the biggest bombing attack ever by the Islamic State.
A small group of US forces surveyed the airfield shortly after it was seized by the Iraqis, but USA military officials said it was unclear how much time it would take before cargo planes and other aircraft could land there.
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Iraqi Defense Minister Khalid Al-Ubaidi, a Mosul native, has declared that “2016 will be the year of the liberation of Mosul and the rest of Iraq”.
