By Phil Stewart CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (Reuters) - Iraqi forces appear set to drive Islamic State militants out of the town of al-Baghdadi, securing an area near a key air base where U.S. Marines are training local forces, a top U.S. commander said on Monday. Lieutenant General James Terry, the senior U.S. commander of U.S.-led coalition efforts in Iraq and Syria, played down the militants' seizure of large parts of the town earlier this month, saying that the area had long been contested. Speaking to reporters before an unusual war strategy meeting with top U.S. military and diplomatic leaders in Kuwait, Terry portrayed Islamic State as being on the back foot after they swept through **rthern Iraq last summer. "My assessment is (Islamic State) is halted, on the defensive, and really forced-exposed themselves in order to achieve gains," Terry told reporters in Kuwait.
02-24-2015, 02:38 AM
Iraq moving to retake town from Islamic State: U.S. ******r
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