Irbil, Iraq (CNN)New U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Saturday that success is more important than timing in any attempt to retake Iraq's second most populous city, Mosul, from ISIS militants. Carter spoke on his way to Afghanistan, where he is meeting Afghan leaders and U.S. troops in his first week in the post, having taken over from Chuck Hagel. Any operation to take Mosul will be "Iraqi-led and U.S.-supported," he said. "It's important that it be launched at a time when it can succeed and so I think the important thing is that it get done when it can be done successfully. Even if I knew exactly when that was going to be, I wouldn't tell you," he said.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says Iraqi military is making gains against ISIS
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Defense Secretary Ash Carter says what matters in Mosul is success, not a timetable
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Video released by ISIS shows U.S.-made weaponry seized from Iraqi military outpost
The Iraqi military has also had fresh training, some of it conducted by @placeholder and allied forces, to make it more effective.
Although this latest incident was only small, @placeholder forces have steadily acquired large quantities of U.S. weaponry as a result of seizing Iraqi army equipment provided by the United States, particularly in Mosul.