United States to pull some warplanes out of Turkey

The F-15 aircraft will move from Turkey back to their base in Britain, U.S. European Command said Wednesday.

It said that some Katyusha ÇNRA projectiles fell into the camp in the Bashiqa region during the clashes between ISIL and Peshmerga forces at around 3 p.m.

The two countries at times differ on how to wage the war, and any military support “has to be consistent with the way Iraqi security forces fight”, said MacFarland, speaking to reporters at the Baghdad International Airport.

Carter said he planned to discuss that offer with Iraqi officials including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Carter said his trip was also aimed at asking USA allies for greater contributions in the military campaign against Islamic State.

In Syria, earlier efforts to train rebels stumbled and the United States has instead opted to support Kurdish and Syrian Arab groups with a mix of ammunition drops and air strikes.

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.

The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since June 2014, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the IS militants.

In a concerning sign for the U.S.-led coalition, the US announced Wednesday it was pulling a dozen warplanes from a strategic air base in Turkey, one day after Carter visited the base.

Those steps, which Obama approved in late October, include intensification of air strikes, establishment of a new Special Operations task force in Iraq, and the insertion of a small number of Special Operations advisors into Syria. It will be created to better capitalize on intelligence in order to target, capture and kill Islamic State leaders.

The Pentagon has also offered to send Apache helicopters to help the fight in Ramadi if Iraqi leaders request the aid.

Turkish officials have spurned repeated calls from Iraq to leave, saying it was “out of the question”, but suggested they would discuss the matter in three-party talks with the Iraqi Kurds and the US.

Turkey is widely perceived in Iraq’s Shiite majority as complicit with IS, and Shiite militias have advocated using force against Turkish troops should they refuse to withdraw.