WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — During the August 11-14 trip, McGurk and other US officials attended a joint planning session with IKR President Massoud Barzani and Iraqi National Security Advisor Faleh Fayyad.
"This was the second joint meeting between these leaders, and the US delegation was encouraged by the commitment to partnership and ensuring close coordination between Baghdad and Erbil as the planning for Mosul accelerates."
In meetings with other leaders involved in planning the Mosul operation, McGurk emphasized the need to coordinate a military, political and economic campaign plan to liberate the city.
Earlier on Monday, Kurdish Peshmerga forces announced that they had completed a new assault against Islamic State positions east of Mosul, recapturing 11 villages and killing more than 150 terrorists over the weekend.
The Islamic State has controlled Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul for the past two years. Last month, the United Nations warned that the military operation to retake the city could displace 3.4 million people and cause a humanitarian crisis.
The terror group, also known as Daesh in Arabic, is outlawed in Russia and numerous other countries.
