John Bacon

USA TODAY

The arduous task of wresting the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State militants will ultimately be completed and a stabilization plan must be developed, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Sunday.

Carter visited the Kurdish capital of Irbil in northern Iraq to assess the progress being made against the Islamic State. Kurdish peshmerga and Iraqi government forces backed by American advisers and coalition air support began a large-scale operation a week ago to drive the militants from Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

The Kurdish command said Sunday its forces had taken control of eight villages and 40 square miles near the town of Bashiqa, less than 6 miles from Mosul. The statement said Kurdish forces killed dozens of Islamic State fighters and secured a "significant stretch" of the Bashiqa-Mosul highway to limit militant efforts to transport reinforcements.

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top U.S. military official in Iraq, said Iraqi and Kurdish forces had cleared many key villages, allowing Iraqi forces to press toward Mosul.

Iraqi leader says no thanks to U.S. push for Turkish role in Mosul fight

The Islamic State, however, struck fiercely elsewhere in the country. In Rutba, hundreds of miles southwest of Mosul, several policeman were killed in a skirmish Sunday, Mayor Imad al-Dulaimi told Reuters. On Friday, scores of security forces were killed in Kirkuk, 100 miles southeast of Mosul, when militants attacked several locations, and sporadic gunfire continued to be reported Sunday.

Townsend called the Islamic State strikes an effort to divert attention from the crucial battle for Mosul.

Carter and Brett McGurk, the White House envoy for the global coalition against the Islamic State, met Sunday with Masoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, to discuss the next steps in the campaign. The group discussed the latest developments in the Mosul operation "and the importance of continuing the coordination" of military efforts, Barzani said in a statement.

Carter arrived in Baghdad on Saturday, hoping to convince Iraqi leaders to allow Turkey to join the fight for Mosul. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi dismissed the offer, saying Iraqi, Kurdish and other local forces can take back the city without Turkish intervention.

Carter said he assured al-Abadi the U.S. was committed to assisting in the reconstruction of Mosul and Iraq after the Islamic State is gone.



"We talked about our next steps ... in the stabilization of Iraq and our continued willingness to lead a coalition in support of the consolidation of Iraqi government control over Iraqi territory" Carter said, adding "always subject to your approval for everything we do here."

Mosul, a Sunni city of more than 1 million people in Shiite-majority Iraq, fell in 2014 to the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. Several thousand militants are believed to have dug in around the city, rigging improvised explosive devices and preparing car bombs.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called for the protection of civilians to be a priority as forces attempt to re-take Mosul. He said his office had verified reports of militants rounding up residents of surrounding villages and forcing them into Mosul.

“We are gravely worried by reports that ISIL is using civilians in and around Mosul as human shields as the Iraqi forces advance ... which may result in civilian casualties,” Zeid said.