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In Erbil, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter Says Coalition Forces 'Are Killing the Leadership of ISIL'

US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said on Sunday, October 23, Iraqi, Kurdish peshmerga and US forces are on schedule to retake the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, but are also concentrating on “external threats” from the area, meaning heading off IS attack missions from Syria and Iraq targeting the United States and coalition countries.

“We are killing those who are hatching those plots; we are killing the leadership of ISIL,” Carter said during a Sunday stop with American and coalition forces at the Joint Operations Center in Erbil, Iraq. “Mosul will be recaptured…It will be a difficult fight,” he said.

This video shows Carter’s Sunday press conference. He did not elaborate on the schedule for pushing Islamic State out of Mosul. Credit: YouTube/US Department of Defense