Kerry visits Iraq, showing support for embattled prime minister

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Iraq on April 8 to show support for its prime minister, who is grappling with a political crisis, a collapsing economy and a fitful fight to retake ground from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants. 

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last week unsettled Iraq's political elite with a proposed cabinet reshuffle that aims to curb entrenched corruption by replacing long-time politicians with technocrats and academics. 

His aim is to free Iraqi ministries from the grip of a political class that has used the system of ethnic and sectarian quotas instituted after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to amass wealth and influence through corruption. 

U.S. officials are worried that the political unrest may harm Iraq's efforts to retake territory it has lost to ISIL militants, notably its second city of Mosul, seized when parts of the Iraqi army collapsed in 2014. 

Kerry's visit "will underscore our strong support for the Iraqi government as it addresses significant security, economic, and political challenges," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. 

In the past two weeks, Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes have retaken significant parts of the region around Hit, an important town 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Baghdad. 

An offensive billed as the first phase of a campaign to recapture the northern city of Mosul has been put on hold until reinforcements arrive to hold ground, the commander of the operation said on April 6. 

"The political wrangling in Iraq - it's certainly an issue that concerns us," a senior U.S. official in Washington told reporters earlier this week before Kerry flew to Iraq aboard a U.S. military...