Daesh targets Turkish training base in N

He met with Kurdish president Masud Barzani and commanders of the coalition fighting Islamic State, and later met with US special operations forces and had dinner with his troops.

Ketaeb Hezbollah said on its TV channel Etejah that it was responsible, but did not specify how it managed to shell a base located over 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the northernmost positions held by federal forces and allied militiamen.

The possibility of having more US troops in Iraq comes as the Obama administration has been looking to accelerate its campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Carter’s visit here, his third stop on an end-of-year Middle East tour, comes as Iraqi forces seek to push deeper into Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province, which has been in the grip of Islamic State fighters since May. “It’s kind of hard to inflict support on somebody”, he said. “So we try to provide support”.

The base was hit by mortar fire as Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers were fighting ISIS near Mosul. They were armed with rockets, mounted machine guns and vehicle-born improvised explosive devices, officials said. Officials in Washington publicly acknowledged that the Turkish-Syrian border is being used to smuggle oil, goods, fighters and weapons but said the Turkish government is not involved.Szubin said the U.S. has been working with the Turkish government to intensify the scrutiny and oversight of less formal financial channels, such as money transfer service businesses and exchange bureaus. The Iraqi government says they are not welcome and must withdraw.

“I think we are on the verge of breaking the back of Daesh”, he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.

Iraqi forces are making advances on the outskirts of the western city of Ramadi, liberating a number of neighborhoods and dislodging militants of Islamic State.

Obama’s outreach marked the latest effort in an ongoing USA diplomatic campaign to resolve the spat between Iraq and Turkey, and followed phone calls earlier in the week between Vice President Joe Biden and the prime ministers of both Iraq and Turkey.

This month, the United States announced plans to deploy an elite force to Iraq to conduct raids against Islamic State there and in neighbouring Syria.