Defense Secretary Ash Carter thanks U.S. soldiers in Iraq for their service at Q-West airfield, a key strategic staging area in the fight to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists, Dec. 11, 2016. Earlier in the day, Carter met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad, where the two leaders discussed the Mosul campaign and other issues. DoD photo