UN Security Council to meet on Turkish troops in Iraq

At the start of a meeting with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Carter said the USA wants to help Iraq as it fights against IS in Ramadi and then later in Mosul.

Turkey, which said the reinforcements had been sent to address “intensifying security risks”, agreed to “rearrange” its forces this week.

President Barack Obama’s recent decision to dispatch about 50 US special forces to Iraq met a lukewarm reaction in Baghdad, even though the USA insisted it coordinated all its military actions with Iraq’s government.

Turkey has stationed trainers since previous year at a training camp in Iraq for fighters battling the Islamic State group.

Islamic State militants on Wednesday attacked a training camp in Iraq for fighters battling the extremist group, killing three Iraqi Sunni fighters and wounding 10 people, including four of their Turkish trainers, officials said.

Last week, Carter told Congress that the United States would provide attack helicopters or combat advisers if they are requested by the Iraqi government and if circumstances indicate a need.

“This is a very complex environment that we’re operating in and we have to be attentive to some of the political realities that surround us every single day”, said Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, top USA military commander for the Islamic State fight. Attacks that do occur originate from a greater distance and rely more on indirect fire, like artillery, rockets and mortar, rather than direct attacks at closer range, using small arms and other weaponry. Biden and other USA officials have been working the phones for days, urging both Abadi and Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to resolve the dispute.

Carter’s visit is part of a Middle East swing that began in Turkey on Tuesday and also aims to coax more contributions from USA allies in the campaign against Islamic State.

The gear will be shipped from USA storage facilities in Kuwait and likely will arrive within weeks, a senior defense official said.

Carter downplayed his failure to get approval for the deployment, saying he believes Iraq will still eventually accept the offer, and that the helicopters can make a difference “sometime in the future”. This fall, the Pentagon backed away from an earlier plan to stand up a new force of Syrian fighters, in part because of the difficulty of recruiting fighters focused on fighting the Islamic State rather than Syrian President Bashar Assad.