US and coalition forces are to use the newly retaken air base in Qayara as a staging hub, as Iraqi security forces advance in the long-awaited battle to recapture Mosul from Islamic State militants, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said yesterday as he arrived in Iraq.
Carter, who landed in Baghdad on an unannounced visit, said US advisers are prepared to accompany Iraqi battalions if needed, as those units begin to encircle the key northern city.
A senior US defense official said it is not clear when US advisers would begin accompanying the battalions closer to the battlefront, but it could be in the coming weeks and months.
The US official said a team of US troops went into Qayara for a quick site assessment on Sunday and then left.
One job they could do would be to help the Iraqi troops use highly technical bridging capabilities to get across the river into Mosul.
Carter laid out the US vision for Qayara for the first time, describing its recapture as a key strategic victory.
Speaking to reporters before he arrived in Baghdad, he said the air base would be one of the hubs from which “Iraqi Security Forces, accompanied and advised by us as needed, will complete the southern-most envelopment of Mosul. That’s its strategic role, and that’s its strategic importance.”
Carter compared the role of Qayara to how forces used the eastern city of Makhmour. There, US troops set up a fire base for artillery to support advancing Iraqi units.
US Marine Staff Sergeant Louis Cardin was killed at the fire base in March in an Islamic State rocket attack.
“The point of seizing that [Qayara] airfield is to be able to establish a logistics and air hub in the immediate vicinity of Mosul,” Carter told reporters. “So, there will be US logistics support.”
Iraqi forces recaptured the air base from the Islamic State group on Saturday, in a victory hailed by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as a key step ahead of the Mosul fight.
Residents of Mosul, the nation’s second-largest city, should “get ready for the liberation of their areas,” he said.
US officials said that US advisers have already been working at the brigade level with Iraqi special operations forces, but they have not yet accompanied Iraqi Army brigades.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, so spoke on condition of anonymity.
US President Barack Obama in April approved plans to allow US troops to assist Iraqi forces at the brigade and battalion level, where they could be at greater risk, closer to the battle, but still behind the front lines. They had previously been limited to advising at the headquarters and division levels, which are further from the battle.
Carter is expected to meet al-Abadi and Iraqi Minister of Defense Khalid al-Obeidi, as well as Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, the top US military commander in the fight against Islamic State.
The main topic is to be the next steps in the military campaign, with a particular focus on Mosul, he said.
Mosul is considered crucial. It was captured by the Islamic State in the summer of 2014 and the extremist group has been using it as a main headquarters since.
Carter’s day-long visit to Iraq comes on the heels of the two-day NATO summit where allies agreed to expand their military support for the war.
It was Carter’s fourth trip to Iraq as Pentagon chief and his second in three months to assess the campaign to oust Islamic State militants from the nation.
Qayara is the latest in a string of successful operations by Iraqi forces, backed by coalition airstrikes. Government troops have also retaken the city of Ramadi and a number of towns along the route to Mosul.
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