U.S. forces help Iraqis build bridge on way to Mosul | Reuters

WASHINGTON A small group of U.S. troops helped Iraqi forces build a bridge across the Tigris River last week that will support Iraq’s campaign to retake Mosul from the militant group Islamic State, a U.S. military spokesman said on Wednesday.

This was the first time American forces accompanied the Iraqi army closer to the front lines of battle since U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in April that they would be allowed to do so. Previously, advisers were limited to larger divisions further back from battlefields. [nL5N17L3YN]

Colonel Chris Garver, the U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said the operation involved fewer than 10 U.S. troops.

The American engineering team was sent on July 20 to assist a battalion of Iraqi soldiers install a floating bridge over the Tigris near Qayyara air base, recently retaken from Islamic State by Iraqi forces, Garver said.

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The United States has conducted similar lower-level missions with Iraqi special operations forces and Kurdish peshmerga, but this was the first such mission with the Iraqi army, Garver said.

“The use of the bridge connecting the west and east sides of the Tigris … will greatly improve maneuverability and shorten lines of communication for the ISF (Iraqi security forces) as they prepare for the eventual assault to liberate Mosul,” Garver said.

The bridge is the second to be installed by Iraqi security forces in their battle against Islamic State. The first was in Ramadi last year.

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The United States has escalated its military role in Iraq and Syria over the past year to capitalize on gains against the militant group.

On Wednesday, Carter said the U.S.-led coalition would look for opportunities to attack Islamic State from the south in Syria, potentially expanding U.S.-led efforts that recently have focused on northern Syria.

“We will aggressively pursue opportunities to build pressure on ISIL in Syria from the south, complimenting our existing and robust efforts,” Carter said, using an acronym for Islamic State. He was speaking to troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

“This of course will have the added benefits of helping the security of our Jordanian partners and further splitting the Syria theater of operation from the Iraqi theater of operation,” Carter said.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Idrees Ali; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.