Top US military general arrives in Iraq

The US military’s top general has arrived in Iraq to discuss the military campaign against the ISIL terrorist group in the Arab country.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, landed in Baghdad on Monday to hold talks with Iraqi officials and American military commanders.

Dempsey flew from the US naval base in Bahrain. The visit comes as Iraqi forces have launched their largest operation against ISIL terrorists in the north-west of the country.

During a visit to a French aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, the top US military officer defended the overall military campaign in Iraq and appealed for “strategic patience” in the fight against ISIL.

He also said he saw no reason to send more military advisers to Iraq. The Pentagon already has 2,600 military “advisers” on the ground in Iraq.

Washington claims to have been pounding the ISIL hideouts. But the US is facing criticism for not using its air power aggressively against the terrorists.

The ISIL Takfiri terrorists, some of whom were among the militants trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, control large parts of Iraq and Syria.

Recent assessments by counterterrorism officials and experts in the United States reflect an increasingly pessimistic outlook in the US campaign against terrorism.