Iraq Refuses U.S. Offer of Troops, Helicopters

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi refused an offer made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to provide Iraqi forces with expanded advisory support from U.S. troops and close air support from Apache helicopters. The support forces would expand the U.S. presence in Iraq to fight the Islamic State, but the Iraqi government is growing increasingly reticent to consent to an expanded U.S. role. "There are a number of complex relationships that the government of Iraq has to attend to. And we are here in Iraq at the behest of that government, so sometimes we have to adjust the things that we would do," said Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, head of the U.S. military’s Islamic State operations. "It's kind of hard to inflict support on somebody."