BAGHDAD — Defense Secretary Ash Carter met with Iraqi leaders and his commanders Wednesday on an unannounced war zone visit aimed at broadening U.S. assistance to Iraq to defeat the Islamic State group.

The Obama administration has been talking for days about “accelerating” the fight against IS, but that effort is complicated because there is some Iraqi reluctance to having a greater U.S. footprint in the country.

Those concerns could affect whether or not Iraqi leaders agree to allow the U.S. to send Apache attack helicopters and more troops into the fight.

At the start of a meeting with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Carter said the U.S. wants to help Iraq as it fights against IS in Ramadi and then later in Mosul.

“Everything we do…here is subject to the approval of the sovereign Iraqi government,” Carter said. “And I also wanted to emphasize to you, the respect for sovereignty and for Iraq’s territorial sovereignty is a principle that the United States strongly supports in every context.”

Abadi said he believes Iraqi forces are making progress.

“I think we are on the verge of breaking the back of Daesh,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

The Apache helicopters, said Army Col. Steve Warren, would not be used until Abadi requests them, adding that the prime minister has to balance the military options with his own political environment in the country.

Many Iraqis “don’t agree with the American presence in this country,” said Warren, a U.S. military spokesman.

That reluctance also could hold up any move to embed U.S. military advisers with Iraqi Brigade headquarters. The small advisory teams wouldn’t be on the front lines, but would allow them to provide better planning advice and coordination for the Iraqi units, said Warren.