As machine guns rattled Thursday from a nearby firing range, Iraqi recruits at this dusty base outside Baghdad trained on tactics, radios, firing mortars and tanks before a bevy of visiting Pentagon brass.

But off to the side, their trainers, mostly from Spain and Portugal, said the soldiers often show up late for training courses or don’t show up at all.

“The last group we had here was a complete disaster,” said Spanish army Maj. Ignacio “Nacho” Arias. “They would come and go without permission.”

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The troubles at this training base reflect broader difficulties in building an Iraqi ground force capable of pushing entrenched Islamic State fighters out of Mosul, the militants’ self-declared capital in Iraq, a priority for the White House and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi’s government.

The Pentagon announced in March 2015 that an Iraqi offensive on the strategic city was all but imminent. But those ambitious plans were repeatedly shelved as Iraqi troops struggled to push the militants out of smaller cities and towns.

1 / 67 Iraqi Shiite fighters patrol around the town of Khalis, in Iraq’s Diyala province, after government forces retook the area from the Islamic State group’s control. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP/Getty Images) 2 / 67 A Yazidi fighter protects the Sharaf al-Deen temple shrine, one of the holiest for the Yazidis, a religious minority whom the Islamic State group considers heretics deserving to die, in Sinjar, northern Iraq. (Seivan Selim / Associated Press) 3 / 67 A Free Syrian Army fighter from Shams al-Shamal heads to the front line in Kobani, Syria. Kurdish fighters in Syria have ambitions to become the chief force fighting Islamic State extremists in the country - building on their victory in Kobani to ally with moderate rebels and push the jihadis ever farther. (Jake Simkin / Associated Press) 4 / 67 Shiite volunteers receive martial arts training at a military base in Najaf, southern Iraq. Shiite volunteers have been assisting the Iraqi army as it battles fighters from the group calling itself the Islamic State. (Khider Abbas / EPA) 5 / 67 A Syrian Kurdish sniper looks at the rubble in the Syrian city of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani. (Associated Press) 6 / 67 The Mueller family’s confirmation of Kayla’s death included letters she wrote to her family during her captivity. (Associated Press) 7 / 67 A photo released by WAM, the state news agency of the United Arab Emirates, shows Emirati pilots at an air base in Jordan on Tuesday. (Associated Press) 8 / 67 An image posted online on June 30 by the Raqqa Media Center of Islamic State is said to show fighters from the group parading in Raqqa, their headquarters in north Syria. (Associated Press) 9 / 67 Iraqi Shiite fighters celebrate on February 2, 2015 in al-Mansuriya, in Iraq’s Diyala province, after government forces retook the area from Islamic State group’s control. (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP/Getty Images) 10 / 67 Peshmerga fighters take aim at Islamic State militants near Mosul, Iraq last month. (Anadolu Agency / Getty Images) 11 / 67 A Jordanian child holds a poster of pilot Lt. Moaz Kasasbeh, who was captured by Islamic State militants in Syria and has reportedly been killed. (Nasser Nasser / Associated Press) 12 / 67 A Syrian Kurdish sniper sits on rubble in the city of Kobani. Last week, aided by U.S. airstrikes, the Kurds drove Islamic State extremists out of the city, which suffered tremendous damage. (Associated Press) 13 / 67 Junko Ishido, mother of Kenji Goto, a Japanese hostage held by Islamic State militants, appears at a Tokyo news conference to appeal to Japan’s prime minister to intervene on her son’s behalf. (Shizuo Kambayashi / Associated Press ) 14 / 67 A video purportedly released by Islamic State on Jan. 20 shows Japanese hostages Kenji Goto, left, and Haruna Yukawa with a militant at an undisclosed location. (AFP/Getty Images) 15 / 67 A man comforts the wife of captive Jordanian pilot Lt. Moaz Kasasbeh during a protest in Amman, Jordan, on Wednesday. (Raad Adayleh / Associated Press) 16 / 67 A screengrab from a video shows Islamic State hostage John Cantlie. In the video the British photojournalist gives a stylized media tour of the embattled northern Iraqi city of Mosul. (SITE Intelligence Group) 17 / 67 Japanese hostage Kenji Goto holds what appears to be a photo of Jordanian pilot Lt. Moaz Kasasbeh in a YouTube video projected on a big screen TV on Wednesday. The Islamic State hostage has reportedly been beheaded by his captors. (Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press) 18 / 67 Peshmerga Gen. Mansour Barzani near Mosul on Jan. 21. (Anadolu Agency) 19 / 67 A picture of a slain fighter with the People’s Protection Units is shown during a celebration the Kurdish victory in Kobani, Syria. (Ilyas Akengin / AFP/Getty Images) 20 / 67 Kurdish fighters take up positions on Nov. 1, 2014, in an attempt to lure Islamic State militants to reveal their location in Kobani, Syria. (Jake Simkin / Associated Press) 21 / 67 Iraqi municipal workers remove debris from the scene of a car bombing in central Baghdad on Nov. 9, one of a string of attacks targeting mainly Shiite areas of the capital that has been linked to ongoing fighting between the government and Islamic State militants. (Ali Abbas / EPA) 22 / 67 A man uses binoculars to watch fighting in the Syrian town of Kobani from a hilltop on the Turkish-Syrian border on Nov. 8. (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press) 23 / 67 A mourner flashes a victory sign at the funeral of 19-year-old Syrian Kurdish fighter Perwin Mustafa Dihap, who died Nov. 7 of injuries sustained in fighting with Islamic State militants in her home town of Kobani. (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press) 24 / 67 Shiite Muslim pro-government forces drive near the Iraqi town of Jurf al-Sakhr on Oct. 30, after retaking the area from Islamic State militants (Haidar Hamdani / AFP/Getty Images) 25 / 67 People cheer a convoy of Iraqi Kurdish troops as they arrive in Mardin, Turkey, en route to Syria Oct. 29. (Associated Press) 26 / 67 An explosion follows an airstrike in the Syrian town of Kobani on Oct. 28. (Kutluhan Cucel / Getty Images) 27 / 67 Ethnic Kurds in Turkey greet convoys of fighters from Iraq at the Habur border crossing on Oct. 29. The fighters were on their way to join militias defending the Syrian border town of Kobani from the Islamic State group. (Ilyas Akengin / AFP/Getty Images) 28 / 67 An Iraqi Kurdish fighter flashes a victory sign as a convoy arrives at the Habur crossing into Turkey on Oct. 29. The heavily-armed fighters were on their way to join militias defending the Syrian border town of Kobani from Islamic State militants. (Ilyas Akengin / AFP/Getty Images) 29 / 67 Mourners carry the coffin of a Kurdish fighter killed in the battle with Islamic State militants in Kobani, Syria, during a funeral Oct. 21 in Suruc, Turkey, just across the border. (Gokhan Sahin / Getty Images) 30 / 67 Islamic State militants patrol Oct. 23 near a flag they planted in Syria, just across the Turkish border. (Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images) 31 / 67 Kurds in Suruc, Turkey, mourn Oct. 23 at the funerals for three Kurdish fighters who died in Kobani, Syria. (Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images) 32 / 67 A man watches the Syrian town of Kobani through a sniper rifle sight near the Mursitpinar border crossing in Turkey. (Gokhan Sahin / Getty Images) 33 / 67 An explosion from an airstrike rocks a Syrian hill near Kobani on Oct. 23. (Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images) 34 / 67 A U.S.-led coalition aircraft flies over Kobani, Syria. (Gokhan Sahin / Getty Images) 35 / 67 An explosion rocks the Syrian city of Kobani during a reported suicide car bombing by the militant group Islamic State. (Gokhan Sahin / Getty Images) 36 / 67 Tanks from the Turkish armed forces are dispatched to the border with Syria as clashes intensify between ethnic Kurdish fighters and Islamic State militants on Sept. 29. (Carsten Koall / Getty Images) 37 / 67 Two U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle jets fly over northern Iraq after conducting airstrikes in neighboring Syria. (Matthew Bruch / U.S. Air Force) 38 / 67 An antiwar protester holds a placard outside the British Parliament, where lawmakers approved plans to join U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq on Sept. 26. (Justin Tallis / AFP/Getty Images) 39 / 67 Turkish and Syrian Kurds try to tear down a border fence during protests against the extremist group Islamic State on Sept. 16. Refugees fleeing the militants have flooded into Turkey from Syria. (Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images) 40 / 67 Kurdish protestors clash with Turkish security forces at the border with Syria during a protest against Islamic State militants on Sept. 26. (Sedat Suna / European Pressphoto Agency) 41 / 67 Shiite Muslim volunteers from the Iraqi city of Tal Afar train at a military camp in Karbala on Sept. 25. (Mohammed Sawaf / AFP/ Getty Images) 42 / 67 Syrians check a damaged house, reportedly hit by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, in the village of Kfar Derian in the western Aleppo province on Sept. 23. (Sami Ali / AFP/Getty Images) 43 / 67 This still image made from video released by the U.S. Central Command shows a structure in Tall Al Qitar, Syria, moments after a U.S. airstrike. (Associated Press) 44 / 67 A propaganda video posted on an Islamic State site is said to show recruits marching in an unknown location. ( AFP /Getty Images) 45 / 67 A video posted on an Islamic State site is said to show recruits training at an unknown location. (AFP /Getty Images) 46 / 67 A sandstorm hits the Yumurtalik crossing on Sept. 24 as Syrian Kurdish refugees enter Turkey near Suruc. Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds have poured into Turkey,fleeing the Islamic State group. (Getty Images) 47 / 67 A Syrian refugee child waits as Turkish soldiers guard the Turkish border near Sanliurfa. Turkey has seen an influx of Syrian refugees since the start of Syria’s civil war three years ago. (Sedat Suna / European Pressphoto Agency) 48 / 67 In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, a F/A-18F Super Hornet lands aboard the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf on Sept. 23 after conducting strike missions against Islamic State targets in Syria. (Brian Stephens / U.S. Navy) 49 / 67 Syrians check the rubble of a house damaged by coalition airstrikes in the village of Kfar Derian, a base for the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, a rival of the Islamic State group, in northern Syria. (Associated Press) 50 / 67 Syrian children hold up debris from a damaged house, reportedly hit by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, in the village of Kfar Derian in the western Aleppo province. (Sami Ali / AFP/Getty Images) 51 / 67 Lt. Gen. William C. Mayville Jr., director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks about airstrikes in Syria during a briefing at the Pentagon. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images) 52 / 67 Syrians check structures damaged by coalition airstrikes in the village of Kfar Derian in northern Syria. (Associated Press) 53 / 67 President Obama, accompanied by Secretary of State John F. Kerry, national security advisor Susan Rice, right, and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, meets with the representatives of Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Iraq, in New York. Obama met with the five Arab nations that participated in strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) 54 / 67 U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting Islamic State positions in Syria are launched from the guided-missile cruiser Philippine Sea in the Arabian Gulf. (Eric Garst / U.S. Navy) 55 / 67 An F/A-18C Hornet prepares to launch from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush during a U.S. attack on Islamic State militants in Syria on Sept. 23. (Robert Burck / U.S. Navy) 56 / 67 The guided-missile destroyer Arleigh Burke launches Tomahawk cruise missiles in the Arabian Gulf on Sept. 23. (U.S. Navy) 57 / 67 Demonstrators chant pro-Islamic State slogans and carry the group’s flags while marching in front of provincial government headquarters in Mosul, Iraq, in June. (Associated Press) 58 / 67 Syrians fleeing Islamic State wait to cross into Turkey on Sept. 22. (Getty Images ) 59 / 67 An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighter fires at Islamic State militant positions from the top of Mount Zardak, a strategic point about 15 miles east of Mosul. (JM Lopez / AFP/Getty Images) 60 / 67 An undated photo on a militant website Sept. 19 shows Islamic State militants standing guard in front of a police station in Nineveh province in Iraq. (Associated Press) 61 / 67 A frame grab taken from a video released by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan Media shows militants marching at an undisclosed location. (Al-Furqan Media) 62 / 67 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take position near the militant-held city of Zumar in Iraq’s Mosul province on Sept. 4. Iraqi security forces, bolstered by thousands of Shiite Muslim militiamen and ethnic Kurdish fighters, have clawed back ground northeast of Baghdad. (Ali Al-Saadi / AFP/Getty Images) 63 / 67 Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen fire at Islamic State positions during an operation outside Amirli, about 105 miles north of the capital, Baghdad. (Associated Press) 64 / 67 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire toward Islamic State positions during heavy clashes in Duz-Khurmatu, Iraq, on Aug. 31. (Jim Lopez / European Pressphoto Agency) 65 / 67 An image posted by the Islamic State group’s Raqqa Media Center in June showed fighters parading in the Syrian city. (Raqqa Media Center) 66 / 67 A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter aims his rifle from a post in Makhmur, a town in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, on Sept. 8. (Mohamed Messara / European Pressphoto Agency) 67 / 67 An image posted on a militant website in January showed a convoy of vehicles and fighters from the Islamic State group in Iraq’s Anbar Province. (Associated Press)

Iraqi forces finally launched their long-delayed assault toward Mosul last month. It quickly stalled.


The sluggish pace has frustrated U.S. commanders and White House officials, who had hoped to recapture the heavily defended northern city and deal a decisive blow to the militants before President Obama leaves office in January.

Obama made it clear this week that he isn’t very optimistic.

“My expectation is that by the end of the year, we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall,” he said Monday in an interview with CBS News.

“We’re not doing the fighting ourselves, but when we provide training, when we provide special forces who are backing them up, when we are gaining intelligence … what we’ve seen is we can continually tighten the noose,” he added.


As part of the push, the Marines deployed about 200 troops and four 155-millimeter howitzer cannons on March 17 to a newly created outpost called Firebase Bell near Makhmour, where U.S. advisors are training Iraqi troops for the assault on Mosul.

Two days later, Islamic State forces fired Katyusha rockets at the firebase. One landed in the compound and killed Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, a 27-year-old field artilleryman from Temecula, Calif., and wounded eight other Marines.

Pentagon officials did not disclose establishing the forward artillery base until they announced Cardin’s death. The Pentagon later released photos showing the Marines firing the field artillery at what it said were Islamic State infiltration routes.

Visiting Baghdad this week, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced that the Pentagon would send 217 more military advisors to Iraq and allow them to accompany Iraqi troops at the battalion level, and thus far closer to the front lines, instead of mostly being confined to Iraqi division headquarters.


That boosts the official total to 4,087 U.S. troops in Iraq. But that tally doesn’t include commandos and what the military is calling temporary deployments. U.S. officials say more than 5,000 U.S. military personnel are in Iraq.

Carter also said the Pentagon would increase its logistical support for the Iraqi military and would deploy several Apache attack helicopters, which are designed for close air support, as well as long-range artillery to aid in the fight.

In addition, the U.S. would provide $417 million to the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, he said. Most of the money is intended to pay Kurdish militiamen who have been key allies against Islamic State but who don’t always get paid.

Iraqi leaders appear daunted by the prospect of assaulting a major urban center, according to U.S. officials, and for good reason. Several thousand militants are said to be defending the city and have set hundreds of booby traps in houses and streets.


“We anticipate they [Islamic State] will fight it out to the death,” said a U.S. counter-terrorism official in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity in discussing internal assessments. “If you are the Iraqi army, you have to face that.”

Abadi’s fragile government in Baghdad has struggled to rebuild its army since entire divisions fled before the insurgent onslaught in 2014. A defeat at Mosul would undermine government authority and shift momentum back to Islamic State.

Although the militants remain capable of launching offensives, U.S. planners believe the battle has shifted against Islamic State in recent months.

Under attack by Iraqi troops backed by coalition airstrikes, the militants were forced out of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, from Hit, a provincial capital northwest of Ramadi, and key positions near Sinjar in northern Iraq. A U.S. special operations task force is conducting raids against the group’s leaders.


Leading any assault on Mosul will be Iraqi troops trained here at Besmaya and at several other bases. Many apparently have little or no previous training and lack sufficient weapons and ammunition.

On Thursday, Iraqi soldiers took turns operating two aging Russian tanks on the Romeo 2 firing range. One after another, they clambered aboard the Soviet-era T-72s and aimed at a target a few hundred yards away.

The cannons stayed silent, however, because the trainees had not been issued any ammunition.

“The most important thing for training is tank rounds and we don’t have it,” complained Maj. Mohammed Abdul Kareem Kadim, an officer with Iraq’s 9th armored division. “How can we train? We need the Iraqi government to bring equipment to us.”


Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, watched with Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, who heads the U.S. campaign in Iraq and Syria from Baghdad.

It was Dunford’s third trip to Iraq since October, and he said he wanted to take stock. He asked MacFarland about the Iraqis’ will to fight.

MacFarland responded that young soldiers are often eager to take the fight to the militants and are let down and frustrated with officers who fail to press forward in combat.

“It’s like Napoleon said: ‘There are no bad regiments, only bad colonels,’” he said. “They’re brave. They’ll fight if they’re well led.”


The U.S. is also training Iraqi fighter pilots and sharing intelligence for airstrikes. The partnership was on display Thursday at the Combined Joint Operations Center in Baghdad, where coalition officers and Iraqi commanders plan bombing runs.

The low-slung building has dozens of analysts perched behind glowing computer monitors. Five large flat screens streamed real-time video from U.S. MQ-1 Predator drones and two Iraqi drones, which were watching twin warehouses north of Hit.

About 20 militants were said to be building car bombs in the warehouses. Iraqi pilots flying two Russian-made Su-25 fighter jets in the area were given the coordinates and ordered to destroy the targets.

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Moments later, they dropped two bombs and the flat screens showed plumes of thick gray smoke.

But when the dust settled, the two buildings stood intact. The bombs had missed by 100 feet or more.

The analysts watched on the screens as the suspected militants ran outside and fled to a nearby palm grove, where they disappeared.

Lt. Col. Jeff McCormack, a Marine in the operation center, said he wasn’t surprised.


“Unfortunately, it happens more times than not with the Su-25s,” he said. “The Iraqis don’t always pull it off.”

Times staff writer Brian Bennett in Washington contributed to this report.

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