Secretary of Defense Ash Carter met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other Iraqi leaders in Baghdad on July 11. He commended them for the recent progress in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, including the capture of a strategic airfield near the town of Qayyarah that will aid operations to free Mosul. Carter announced that the United States, in close coordination with the Iraqi government, will deploy an additional 560 troops to Iraq to build on that momentum.
