United States withdrawing 12 warplanes from Turkish air base

Carter was to talk with his commanders, including Lt. Gen. Sean McFarland who is heading the fight against IS, and Iraqis about the new USA plan to deploy a new special commando force to Iraq.

Carter arrived in Baghdad to assess the campaign against ISIL in Iraq.

The U.S. military noted that it still had 12 A-10 strike aircraft as well as drone aircraft at Incirlik. “Everything we do, and the coalition does, in Iraq is subject to the principal of Iraqi sovereignty and therefore his permission”.

Many Iraqis “don’t agree with the American presence in this country”, said Warren.

More than 1,000 fighters were receiving training at the camp when it came under attack. “So we try to provide support”. Subsequent reports from United States officials suggested they believed Iraq would accept the offer.

“Soldiers of the caliphate were able to launch 200 Grad rockets”, the statement said in reference to the Islamic “caliphate” the jihadist group has declared in parts of Iraq and Syria. “There are a number of complex relationships that the government of Iraq has to tend to”. “So we sometimes have to adjust the things we do, like on a chessboard”.

The U.S. has been supporting Iraqi forces with airstrikes since August of a year ago, but has so far ruled out sending ground troops.

Abadi expressed optimism about the road ahead.

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

“It’s your victory, and it’s your advance”, he said later in a meeting with Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi.

As Carter was visiting Baghdad, fighting continued in the Iraqi city of Ramadi.

Iraqi Kurdish officials said the IS shelling in the Bashiqa area was part of a multipronged attack attempting to break through lines held by Peshmerga forces in several separate areas around Mosul.

The Iraqis have made progress around suburban Ramadi during the past two weeks, including the seizure of a key landmark, the Palestine Bridge, which controls the flow of supplies and people into the city via the Euphrates River.

Nations across the world have been extending support to combat ISIS after the recent terror attacks in Paris.

Ten thousand members of the Iraqi security forces now surround Ramadi.

Carter’s visit to Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, followed a trip to Baghdad the day before.

Carter’s visit had been scheduled for some time, but President Obama said on Monday that Carter would head to the Middle East “to work with our coalition partners on securing more military contributions to this fight” against ISIS.