Kuwait to host US anti-'Islamic State' talks
February 22, 2015
Carter flew to Kuwait City from Afghanistan on Sunday to chair the extraordinary meeting of two dozen senior US officers and ambassadors, less than a week after taking office as Pentagon chief.
Carter, while concluding a two-day trip to Afghanistan, said he wanted to have all "expertise" represented at Monday's consultations on the multinational effort against IS.
He was greeted by greeted by Kuwait's Defense Minister Sheikh Khalid al-Jarrah al-Sabah (pictured above).
One US official quoted by the news agency AFP said Carter would be updated in Kuwait on both military and regional diplomatic facets of the campaign.
One aspect was the Iraqi government's bid to recruit Sunni Iraqis - embittered by past sectarian clashes in Iraq - into the fight against the "Islamic State" (IS) extremists.
The IS seized swathes of northern Syria and western Iraq early last year, turning northern Iraq's city of Mosul into an IS stronghold.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said the Kuwait meeting would include the US commander heading the anti-IS campaign, Lieutenant General James Terry, as well as the heads of the US' Africa and European command.
Washington's ambassadors to Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would also attend.
Iraq criticizes timeline for Mosul
Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi criticized the US military on Sunday for revealing a timeframe of April or May to recapture Mosul.
Last Thursday, a US Central Command official said an Iraqi and Kurdish military force of 20,000 to 25,000 troops were being prepared to recapture the city.
"A military official should not reveal the timing of an offensive," Obeidi said, adding that Iraqi commanders would decide the timing. "The battle for Mosul starts when preparations are complete."
On Saturday, Carter said he would not telegraph the precise timing. "This isn't the kind of thing you would reveal anyway in advance," he said.
Series of airstrikes
The US and partner nations, including the United Arab Emirates, have conducted a series of airstrikes in recent days against IS-controlled positions.
The coalition's joint task force listed sites near Kobani, on Syria's border with Turkey, Haditha, Kirkuk and Sinjar in Iraq.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that Kurdish fighters had begun an offensive to retake the Syrian town of Tal Hamis from IS fighters.
Newaf Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said the offensive was "one of the YPG's biggest recent operations."
On Saturday, according to Iraqi officials, Iraqi troops broke an IS siege of a residential compound in al-Baghdadi, in Iraq's western province of Anbar.
The fighting took place near the Ain al-Asad airbase, where US Marines have been training Iraq soldiers.
ipj/cmk (AFP, AP, Reuters)