Pentagon will provide new assistance to Iraq after Baghdad bombings
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter promised Iraqi officials new assistance Monday to stave off bombings by the Islamic State after the group’s most deadly attack on central Baghdad earlier this month. The Pentagon chief said the United States would offer high-tech explosives detectors and a visit by the U.S. general running a Defense Department office aimed […]Dan Lamothe writes for The Washington Post:
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter promised Iraqi officials new assistance Monday to stave off bombings by the Islamic State after the group’s most deadly attack on central Baghdad earlier this month.
The Pentagon chief said the United States would offer high-tech explosives detectors and a visit by the U.S. general running a Defense Department office aimed at combating improvised explosives.
The added support comes as Carter also announced Monday that 560 more U.S. troops will deploy to Iraq in coming weeks, primarily to reestablish an airfield seized Saturday by Iraqi security forces 40 miles south of the Islamic State-held city of Mosul. Carter offered the assistance of Army Lt. Gen. Michael H. Shields, director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and the Iraqi leader accepted, defense officials traveling with Carter said.
