US withdrawing 12 warplanes from Turkish air base

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Wednesday held talks with Iraqi leaders over fighting the Islamic State (IS) militant group, and means to boost military support for Iraqi forces.

The base is in an area controlled by Kurdish peshmerga forces, which repelled several attacks by Islamic State on Wednesday with the help of more than 25 air strikes from the U.S.-led coalition.

“The ways we… can contribute to Iraqi success on the battlefield is by training Iraqi units, providing air support to Iraqi units, and possibly operating with Iraqi units and things like that”.

“Although no life-threatening injuries were reported, the wounded soldiers were rushed to a hospital in Turkey’s Sirnak province”, the agency said.

Carter said both Abadi and Lt. General Sean MacFarland, who is leading the war on ISIS, both feel right now that the helicopters are not needed for the fight to take Ramadi. And those assets should only be used when they can make a critical, strategic contribution to the fight.

“They were pushed off the bridge for about half a day yesterday”, Warren said.

A senior US official said the USA has been making preparations and will be ready at any moment to dispatch the Apaches when requested. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Iraqi reluctance for USA assistance also could delay any move to embed US military advisers with Iraqi brigade headquarters.

The US, which has around 3,500 troops in Iraq now, has said it is willing to deploy advisers and attack helicopters to help Iraq retake Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

He told Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi that the deployment “occurred without the prior consent of the Iraqi government”, the White House said. It reflects Washington’s growing interest in ramping up the fight against the Islamic State group in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks that killed 149 people in November and the shootings that killed 14 Americans in San Bernadino, California, in early December.

American special forces operatives have also been offered in a bid to “accelerate the campaign to defeat” ISIS.

The focus in recent days has been the battle in Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province, which was taken by IS militants. Coalition warplanes have backed Iraqi’s effort by launching more than 5,800 airstrikes in the country. Carter said he was discussing with other coalition officials how to do so.