U. S. risks more losses in ISIL fight

Defense secretary warns struggle is “far from over”

U. S. forces and their allies risk more losses in the battle to defeat the Islamic State even though they are trying to avoid direct ground combat with the radical militants, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned Wednesday.

“Our overall approach is to enable local forces to do the fighting,” Carter said a day after a Navy SEAL was killed by Islamic State extremists while advising Kurdish forces battling the militants. “But that doesn’t mean we're not going to do any fighting at all as a coalition.”

The SEAL, identified as Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Keating, was two miles from the frontlines when he was killed when militants penetrated Kurdish defensive lines and attacked with small arms and car bombs while his team was moving from one location to another. He was the third American to die in Iraq since the U. S. military returned to the country in 2014 to help local forces fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

“He was in a firefight and he died in combat,” Carter told a news conference here Wednesday. Carter was in Germany to meet with representatives of 11 allies in the fight against ISIL.

“His mission was to advise and assist the ( Kurdish) peshmerga," the defense secretary said. "That was a dangerous mission that took him into combat and that’s where he perished heroically.”

Carter and the 11 allies are discussing ways of accelerating the war against the militants in Iraq and Syria as coalition- backed Iraq forces embark on an offensive to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, from the group.

“With your help it will go faster,” Carter said at the start of the meeting. He cited progress in the battle against ISIL, but cautioned, “The fight is far from over.”

The U. S. has increased the numbers of American advisers in Iraq to 4,087 from 3,870.

LIZ KEATING Charlie Keating IV