This handout photo provided the U.S. Department of Defense shows U.S. chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, being greeted by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Stuart E. Jones as he arrives at the airport in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday. America's top military leader arrived in Iraq on Saturday on a previously unannounced visit, his first since a U.S.-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State group. Dempsey later flew to Irbil, capital of Iraq's largely autonomous northern Kurdish region. AP Photo/D. Myles Cullen, DOD This handout photo provided the U.S. Department of Defense shows U.S. chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, third right, meeting his Iraqi counterpart Shawkat B. Zebari, left, with their delegations, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday. This handout photo provided the U.S. Department of Defense shows chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, speaking to approximately 150 U.S. military members during a town hall meeting, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday. This handout photo provided the U.S. Department of Defense shows U.S. chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday. Iraq's Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi, third left, meets with U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey, third right, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the defence ministry in Baghdad, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014. The visit by Dempsey came just two days after he told Congress that the United States would consider dispatching a modest number of American forces to fight with Iraqi troops against the extremist Islamic State group. (AP/Photo BAGHDAD (AP) - America's top military leader arrived in Iraq on Saturday on a previously unannounced visit, his first since a U.S.-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State group. The visit included talks in Baghdad with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and U.S. Ambassador Stuart E. Jones, Thomas said. Dempsey later flew to Irbil, capital of Iraq's largely autonomous northern Kurdish region, where he met with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani. Dempsey also visited the U.S. joint operations center in Irbil, got a briefing on the Kurdish offensive against the Islamic State group and held a town hall with deployed troops there, Thomas said. The Pentagon has plans to establish an expeditionary advise and assist center in Irbil where U.S. troops will provide assistance to Iraqi forces at the brigade and higher levels. The U.S. also is planning to set up a training site near Irbil. According to plans laid out last week, the U.S. expects to train nine Iraqi security forces brigades and three Kurdish Peshmerga brigades. Dempsey's visit to Iraq comes a day after Iraqi forces drove Islamic State militants out of a strategic oil refinery town north of Baghdad, scoring their biggest battlefield victory yet. The loss of Beiji marks the latest in a series of setbacks for the jihadi group, which has lost hundreds of fighters to U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, particularly in the group's stalled advance on the Syrian town of Kobani. Meanwhile on Saturday, two parked car bombs exploded minutes apart north of Baghdad, targeting a security checkpoint, authorities said. The attack killed nine people and wounded 32, according to police and hospital officials. Later, a booby-trapped house in northern Baghdad blew up as a joint army and police force searched it for weapons, killing five and wounding 10, according to hospital and police officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists. Baldor reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Bram Janssen in Irbil, Iraq contributed to this report.