WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Townsend visited a coalition air base near Mosul together with US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who arrived in Iraq on a surprise visit to thank US-led coalition troops for their service as part of the fight against Daesh, according to the Pentagon’s press service.
“At the start of the campaign, we estimated somewhere between at the low end 3,500, at the high end, about 6,000. By our calculations we think we have killed or badly wounded over 2,000. So if you do the math, that's still 3,000-5,000,” Townsend said on Sunday as quoted in the Pentagon press release.
The Iraqi operation to liberate Mosul, which was occupied by Daesh in June 2014, has been ongoing since October 17. The offensive is led by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Iraqi soldiers backed by the US-led anti-terror coalition.
