Top US general arrives in Iraq as military campaign expands

Baghdad: The top US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, arrived on Saturday in Baghdad on an unannounced visit to meet U.S. commanders preparing to increase American assistance to Iraqi and Kurdish forces battling Sunni Islamic State (IS) militants.

It was Dempsey’s first trip to Iraq since President Barack Obama, alarmed by Islamic State advances, ordered non-combatant American forces back into the country this summer, less than three years after withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. U.S. air strikes began in August.

“I want to get a sense from our side about how our contribution is going,” Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters shortly before landing in Baghdad.

“I want to hear from those actually doing the lifting that they’ve the resources they need and the proper guidance to use those resources.”

Last week, Obama authorized sending up to 1,500 more forces to Iraq, roughly doubling the planned U.S. troop presence as the United States expands its advisory mission and starts training Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

Dempsey was due to meet U.S. officials overseeing the effort, including Kuwait-based task force commander Lieutenant General James Terry, as well as Iraqi officials.

“This will work best if we’re enabling (Iraq’s) plan,” Dempsey, who last visited Iraq in 2012, said.

Dempsey’s visit comes in the wake of Iraqi battlefield advances highlighted by U.S. officials, including retaking areas around the country's biggest refinery near the city of Baiji.

Still, the Islamic State remains defiant.

It has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings, including attacks in Baghdad. The presence of Islamic State militants in Iraq has fueled sectarian tensions between majority Shi'ites and Sunnis.

On Saturday, a car bomb killed five Iraqi soldiers on a road just north of Baghdad as they inspected the damage caused by an earlier blast, police sources said.

An audio message purported to be from the group’s leader this week urged supporters in Saudi Arabia to take the fight to the rulers of the kingdom, which has joined the U.S.-led coalition in mounting air strikes against IS in Syria.

About 1,400 U.S. troops are now on the ground, just below a previous limit of 1,600 troops. The new authorization from Obama gives the U.S. military the ability to deploy up to 3,100 troops.