US Secretary of Defense arrives in Iraq on unannounced visit

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis arrived at the Baghdad International Airport on an unannounced trip.

Before departing for his first trip to Baghdad as the new Defense Secretary, James Mattis told reporters, "We're not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil."

"All of us in America have generally paid for our gas and oil all along and I'm sure that we will continue to do so in the future," Mattis added.

His comments appeared to be a departure from the US President Donald Trump, who has made controversial comments about Iraq and its oil, CNN wrote.

In January, Trump said about Iraq: "We should have kept the oil. Maybe we'll have another chance." He repeated the comments a few days later in an interview with ABC's David Muir: "We should have taken the oil. You wouldn't have ISIS if we took the oil".