WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has been eager to show momentum against the Islamic State after a conference last week dramatized the hurdles to countering the terrorist group’s propaganda. But the Pentagon may have gone too far in sharing its military planning.
On Thursday, a senior official from the American military’s Central Command told reporters that Iraqi and Kurdish forces, with help from the United States, were preparing to launch an assault to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul in April or May, before the searing heat of the Iraqi summer. The assault force, the official said, would consist of up to 25,000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops.
The unusual level of detail about timing and the size of the force ignited a furor on Capitol Hill, where Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, sent an angry letter to President Obama. They wrote that the disclosures “not only risk the success of our mission, but could also cost the lives of U.S., Iraqi, and coalition forces.”
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A version of this article appears in print on February 22, 2015, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Disclosures Of Battle Plan By Pentagon Startle Many . Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
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