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U.S. defense chief arrives in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi leaders: TV

Xinhua, July 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Monday arrived in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on an unannounced visit to meet with Iraqi leaders, Iraqi official television reported.

Carter's visit came as Iraqi forces are fighting against the Islamic State (IS) militant group and advancing to free Iraq's last major IS stronghold in Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad.

Carter is expected to meet with Iraqi leaders and top U.S. military officials to discuss coordination of military campaign against the IS in the country, and means to enhance U.S. support by the international coalition to Iraqi forces fighting to free Mosul, the state-run Iraqiya channel said.

The visit came in less than three months after Carter's previous one in April when he discussed with Iraqi leaders America's offer to deploy extra troops to Iraq as advisors to Iraqi forces.

Hundreds of U.S. marines are already in Iraq, serving as trainers and advisers, in an attempt to help the country win the battle against IS extremists in Iraq's western province of Anbar as well as in northern Iraq.

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

The IS took control of country's northern city of Mosul and later seized territories in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.

A U.S.-led international coalition has been conducting air raids against IS targets in both Iraq and Syria.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups such as the IS group on the United States, which invaded Iraq in March 2003 under the pretext of seeking to destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the country.

The war led to the ouster and eventual execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, but no WMD was found. Endit