US to base hundreds of troops outside Afghanistan

Carter also will meet with Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul before heading back to Bagram to meet USA troops. He likened Qayara to the eastern city of Makhmour, where USA troops set up a fire base for artillery to support advancing Iraqi units. The additional troops will bring the official number of USA service members in Iraq to 4,647 – far fewer than the 130,000 the United States had in the country about a decade ago.

Iraqi government forces advancing on the Islamic State-held city of Mosul retook a village from IS on Tuesday and linked up along the Tigris river with army units pushing from a separate direction, Defence Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said.

Abadi has pledged to retake Mosul by the end of the year.

On Monday in Iraq, Carter announced that the US would be sending 560 additional troops there in the coming days and weeks.

Carter said the troops would also help Iraqi security forces in planning to encircle and eventually retake the key city, Mosul.

By reclaiming the six villages which include Jarat the Iraqi troops now have under their control the main road that links Qayara to Shargat, said Hevidar Ahmed, Rudaw correspondent on the front.

Al-Asadi said one of two runways at the airfield had been badly damaged, along with some buildings.

“(They are) coming in to help expand the base at Qayara West airfield into a node that can support the Iraqi security forces as they move forward with the Mosul operation, and it’ll be an operational air base”. In addition to taking part in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation advisory-and-assist mission, the United States has special operations forces in the country that conduct counterterrorism missions.

Mosul, in the northern part of the country, has been in the hands of the Islamic State since the summer of 2014 when its forces displaced hundreds of thousands of residents, many of whom left with little to no possessions. “Iraqi security forces, accompanied and advised by us as needed, will complete the southernmost envelopment of Mosul”, he said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group. This has led to the group attacking popular places in Baghdad, including one that killed nearly 300 people in Karrada.