Top US general in Iraq to assess anti-IS campaign

BAGHDAD — America’s top military leader arrived in Iraq on Saturday on a previously unannounced visit, his first since a U.S.-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State group.

The visit by Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, came just two days after he told Congress that the United States would consider dispatching a modest number of American forces to fight with Iraqi troops against the extremist group.

The Iraqi military and security forces, trained by the U.S. at the cost of billions of dollars, melted away in the face of the group’s stunning offensive this summer, when it captured most of northern and western Iraq, including the country’s second-largest city Mosul.

Dempsey said Thursday that Iraqi forces were doing a better job now, although an effort to move into Mosul or to restore the border with Syria would require more complex operations.

He also told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that America has a modest force in Iraq now, and that “any expansion of that, I think, would be equally modest.”

“I just don’t foresee a circumstance when it would be in our interest to take this fight on ourselves with a large military contingent,” he said.

 

SportsPlus

Mower County

Percussive impact: MacPhail’s Cheryl Berglund being honored at state conference

Mower County

Mower keeps up septic progress countywide

News

Summerset Theatre announces Season 57

Business

Listening session lets employers voice concerns

Mower County

Fishing for a Cure returns to East Side Lake

Mower County

In Your Community: Mower County Senior Center

Education

Education Briefs

News

US employers added 143,000 jobs in solid but unspectacular January hiring, jobless rate fell to 4%

News

Trump promotes misleading claims about federal government’s media subscriptions

News

Democratic attorneys general challenging Musk’s staff access to Americans’ sensitive personal data

Mower County

Suspect charged with starting Tuesday fire that injured 1

Brownsdale

4,000 pigs lost in late Wednesday barn fire near Brownsdale

News

Minnesota House Democratic and GOP leaders reach power-sharing agreement to end partisan stalemate

Mower County

One sent to the hospital after two-vehicle crash

Mower County

Suspect in Tuesday fire taken into custody

Brownsdale

Firefighters dispatched to small house fire Tuesday afternoon in Brownsdale

Business

Guided to Serve: For 25 years Theresa Turnbull has been a trusted soul at Comforcare

Mower County

New mobile app launches to combat food insecurity in Mower County

Mower County

Report on sanitary sewer evaluation given during City Council work session

Agriculture

Kimberly Vrieze joins membership of American Angus Association

Education

Education Briefs

News

Trump’s foreign aid freeze could prove to be a boon for the world’s authoritarian strongmen

Mower County

Austin firefighters battle southwest Austin fire, APD investigating

Mower County

Public hearing set for March 3 regarding addition to Nature Ridge Fourth development