REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BAGHDAD -- The top US military officer arrived Monday in Baghdad urging patience in the battle against the Islamic State group as Iraqi forces pressed their largest operation yet against the jihadists.

Some 30,000 men have been involved in a week-old operation to recapture Tikrit, one of the jihadists' main hubs since they overran large parts of Iraq nine months ago.

And on Monday, Kurdish peshmerga forces launched an offensive south and west of the oil city of Kirkuk, further increasing the pressure on the last IS strongholds east of the Tigris river.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew in on a C-17 military transport aircraft and was due to hold talks with top Iraqi officials.

The United States began carrying out air strikes against IS in August, the first of what is now a 60-nation coalition of mostly Western and Arab states supporting Baghdad's fightback.

But its jets, drones and 2,600 military advisers on the ground have not directly been involved in the battle for Tikrit, which Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on March 1.

Washington has been uneasy about the leading role played by Iran, which is not part of the coalition, in the Iraqi government's efforts to reconquer jihadist-held provinces.

Qassem Soleimani, who is in charge of foreign operations for Tehran's Revolutionary Guards, has been ubiquitous on the front lines and become a cult figure among Iraqi Shiite fighters.

During a visit to a French aircraft carrier in the Gulf taking part in the air campaign, Dempsey appealed for "strategic patience" in the fight against the IS group in Iraq and Syria.

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