Iraq says it has recaptured several villages as part of its offensive to dislodge the self-proclaimed Islamic State from Tikrit. Iranian advisers and Iranian-backed Shiite militias are playing a key role in the campaign for the Sunni city, with reports of Iranian troops and an Iranian general in command. The Iranian involvement comes as Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has confirmed the United States was not asked to take part.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter: “The Iraqi government in this case did not ask for our support in this particular operation, and I think that we need to be watchful, as we take — we, together with the Iraqi government, take back territory from ISIL, that we continue to conduct this campaign in a multi-sectarian way, because we’ve been down the road of sectarianism in Iraq.”

Carter was speaking before a Senate panel, where he also disclosed a Pentagon official is facing an internal inquiry for telling reporters about a U.S.-backed plan to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul. Carter says the information was inaccurate and should never have been “blurted out to the press.”