The United States military could open up a second forward operating base near Mosul in Iraq if need be, a senior US military official told reporters on Wednesday. "As Iraqi security forces progress towards isolating Mosul, there may be a situation, in which there is another base that is opened or reopened from years passed that could be used in the same manner as a fire support base," the Joint Vice Director for Operations Rear Admiral Andrew Lewis said in a press briefing. The US already have a firebase manned by about 200 Marines on the Makhmour front against Islamic State (ISIS), its purpose is to give heavy artillery fire support to Iraqi soldiers, militiamen and Kurdish Peshmerga forces advancing against ISIS. One US Marine was killed in an ISIS rocket attack on the base last month, an incident which revealed its hitherto disclosed existence.
