The U.S. military could open an additional fire base to support Iraqi security forces working to isolate the city of Mosul, according to a senior U.S. military official.
"There may be a situation in which there is another base that is opened or reopened from years past that would be used...as a fire support base behind the front lines," Rear Admiral Andrew Lewis, the Vice Director for the Pentagon's Joint Staff Operations, told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday.
Lewis said that, to his knowledge, no other U.S. fire bases have been opened in Iraq since the fire base in Makhmur was opened last month.
An American Marine was killed on the base, initially named Fire Base Bell and now known as the Kara Soar Counter Fire Complex, during a rocket attack by Islamic State forces on March 19.
A fire base is a temporary space used to fire artillery in support of advancing troops.
