AFP, BAGHDAD: Pentagon chief Ashton Carter flew to Baghdad Thursday for talks on Iraq’s war against the Islamic State group, whose “caliphate” is shrinking but is ramping up deadly car bombings. Carter was to meet Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Sunni Arab tribal leaders from Anbar, the province where much of the fighting has taken place in recent weeks. During his brief visit, which had not been announced in advance for security reasons, Carter will also meet some of the 3,500 US troops deployed to train and advise Iraqi forces. Current military efforts against IS, which took over close to a third of Iraq last year, are focusing on Anbar, where US forces faced their toughest battles during their eight-year occupation of the country. The international coalition led by the United States has conducted thousands of air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria over the past year.
Lately dozens of strikes have hit targets in Anbar every week, as Iraqi forces press a sweeping offensive to regain ground in the province, whose capital Ramadi was seized by IS in May.