US Defense Secretary In Baghdad For New Accords
MEP: US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter landed in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Monday to meet US military commanders and Iraqi officials, as Washington seeks to capitalize on the recent seizure of a major airbase close to ISIS-held Mosul.
U.S. forces will help Iraq set up a logistics hub in a recaptured airfield to use for a push on Mosul, Carter said before visiting Iraq.
US and coalition forces will use the newly retaken air base in Qayara as a staging hub, as Iraqi security forces move forward in the long-awaited battle to recapture Mosul from ISIS militants, Carter said.
Carter was greeted on the tarmac by US Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones and Sean MacFarland, the commander of the US-led coalition fighting Daesh in Iraq and Syria.
In his fourth trip to Iraq as defense secretary, Carter will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi in Baghdad, and will speak by phone with Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iraqi government forces said they took back control of Qayara airbase, 60 km (40 miles) south of Mosul, from the militant group on Saturday, backed by air cover from a U.S.-led military coalition.
