More US boots to Iraq ahead of Mosul
‘Enabler support’
BAGHDAD, July 11, (Agencies): The United States will send 560 more troops to Iraq to help establish a newly retaken air base as a staging hub for the long-awaited battle to recapture Mosul from Islamic State militants, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday on an unannounced visit to the country.
Most of the new troops will be devoted to the build-up of the Qayara air base, about 40 miles south of Mosul, and include engineers, logistics personnel and other forces, Carter said. They will help Iraqi security forces planning to encircle and eventually retake the key city.
“These additional US forces will bring unique capabilities to the campaign and provide critical enabler support to Iraqi forces at a key moment in the fight,” Carter said, according to prepared remarks.
He revealed President Barack Obama’s decision as he spoke to about 120 troops in a building at Baghdad’s airport, shielded from scorching desert hovering near 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Many were members of the 101st Airborne Division, known as the Screaming Eagles. The increase brings the total US force authorization in Iraq to 4,647, and comes just three months after Obama’s last troop addition.
Carter told reporters earlier that US advisers are prepared to accompany Iraqi battalions if needed, as those units begin the siege of the key northern city. It’s not clear when exactly that will happen. US officials said a team of American troops went into Qayara for a quick site assessment Sunday and left.
One potential job is helping Iraqi troops use highly technical bridging capabilities to get across the river into Mosul.
Carter called this weekend’s recapture of Qayara a key strategic victory. Speaking to reporters before he arrived in Baghdad, he said the air base will be one a hub from which “Iraqi Security Forces, accompanied and advised by us as needed, will complete the southernmost envelopment of Mosul. That’s its strategic role, and that’s its strategic importance.”
He likened the air base to how forces used the eastern city of Makhmour. There, US troops set up a fire base for artillery to support advancing Iraqi units. Marine Staff Sgt Louis F. Cardin was killed at the fire base in March in an IS rocket attack.
Iraqi forces retook the air base from the Islamic State group on Saturday. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi hailed the success as a key step toward Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Residents there should “get ready for the liberation of their areas,” al-Abadi said.
US officials said American advisers are already working at brigade level with Iraqi special operations forces, but they have not yet accompanied them on operations. They weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and demanded anonymity.
Obama in April allowed US troops to assist Iraqi forces at brigade and battalion levels, where they could be at greater risk closer to the battle. They would still be behind front lines. They previously had been limited to advising at headquarters and division levels, further from the battle.
MacFarland told reporters during
a press conference that the new forces will begin flowing into Iraq “relatively soon” and said they have already gotten their so-called warning orders to deploy.
IS captured Mosul in the summer of 2014. It has used the city as a main headquarters since.
Carter’s daylong visit to Iraq comes on the heels of the two-day NATO summit where allies agreed to expand their military support for the war.
In addition to Qayara, Iraqi government troops recently have retaken Ramadi, Falluja and a number of towns along the route to Mosul.
But Islamic State militants still control large swaths of the country and continue to launch deadly attacks, including a massive suicide bombing last week at Baghdad’s bustling commercial area of Karada. As many as 186 were killed.
Meanwhile, Carter held talks in Baghdad on the fight against the Islamic State group and the strategy to recapture Iraq’s second city Mosul from the jihadists.
Carter met with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defence Minister Khalid alObeidi, two days after Iraq announced the recapture of a base south of Mosul seen as an important step toward the eventual battle for the city.
Mosul has been under IS control since June 2014, when the jihadists overran large parts of Iraq, carrying out atrocities including summary execution-style killings, mass kidnappings and rape.
“Let me begin ... by expressing the condolences of myself and the United States for the terrorist attacks against the people of Iraq in recent weeks,” Carter told Abadi on his fourth visit to the country since becoming defence secretary in 2015.
“You have our sympathy but also it further strengthens our resolve to help in the defeat of (IS), which all of our societies need because all of our societies are subject to attacks.”
“I also want to congratulate you on the string of successes that the Iraqi security forces have had,” said Carter.
The Qayyarah airbase, which Abadi announced Saturday had been recaptured, is located 60 kms (35 miles) south of Mosul and can serve as a launchpad for future operations to recapture the city.
Ahead of his meetings, Carter told journalists that he would discuss the next moves in the war against the jihadists.
“What I’ll be discussing with Prime Minister Abadi and our commanders there are the next plays in the campaign, which involve the collapse and control over Mosul,” Carter said aboard a military plane.
The ultimate goal, he added, was “the recapture of all of Iraqi territory by the Iraqi security forces, but of course Mosul is the biggest part of that.”
US defence officials say the camauthorized
paign’s first “10 plays” have been successfully completed in the US-led counter-IS campaign in Iraq and Syria.
These steps include the recapture of several important areas across the two countries, including Ramadi in Iraq and Al-Shadadi, a town in northeastern Syria previously considered a strategic IS stronghold.