COSTELLO: Vice President Joe Biden making a surprise visit to Iraq to talk about ISIS. He landed in Baghdad last hour to meet with Iraq's political leaders and also to deliver and in-person plea. Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with more on this. Good morning.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The vice-president's visit was not announced, because security is always paramount for U.S. officials visiting Baghdad. Right now, Baghdad is unsettled perhaps more than usual. There had been major protests, as many as 100,000 people protesting the Abadi administration in Iraq, many of them coming out into the streets at the behest of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. So, security a concern, a very sensitive time in Iraq. But Biden is also there to discuss the U.S. plan in the coming weeks. It was just yesterday that Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced somewhat unexpectedly that the U.S. was hoping the Iraqis could get all the troops ready in position to begin that assault on Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, it is a top priority to get it out of ISIS's hand. What Carter said was that they would try and begin to assemble the troops to be able to do that, assemble them in the next five weeks, before the holy month of Ramadan begins. The assault wouldn't begin perhaps for many more weeks after that, but basically talking about trying to get people in place to do that. That would be a very heavy lift. That would be a very significant effort. And it would have to be backed up by the U.S. military.
Biden Makes Unannounced Visit to Iraq.