BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi pressed US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel yesterday for more air strikes and weaponry to accelerate what he called the “descent” of Islamic State.
The plea underscored tension in the US-Iraqi relationship, with Baghdad pushing for more aggressive assistance than Washington has provided so far, four months after President Barack Obama launched air strikes against IS.
The militant group was “on the descent at the moment”, Abadi told Hagel as the two met at the prime minister’s offices in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone. “Our forces are very much advancing on the ground. But they need more air power and more ... heavy weaponry. We need that.”
Hagel, speaking to journalists afterwards, said he had held candid talks with Abadi and that delivery of some weapons had already been accelerated.
Obama ordered US troops out of Iraq in 2011 but sent some back this summer to help counter the advance of Islamic State, which has declared a ‘caliphate’ on territory it has captured in both Iraq and Syria. Last month, Obama authorised roughly doubling the number of ground forces to 3,100 as the military expands the reach of its advisers and starts training the army and Kurdish forces.
Iraqi forces had strengthened their positions around Baghdad and blocked Islamic State’s move south, Hagel said. They “will be able to intensify offensive operations as the coalition’s training effort expands into northern, western, and central Iraq,” he added.
Asked about the timing of any Iraqi assault on Mosul, the largest Iraqi city under Islamic State control, Hagel said the two countries were making preparations together but did not give details.
A US defence official said Washington believed Iraqi forces were still several months away from trying to recapture Mosul and that it was not top of Baghdad’s action plan.
Since their June offensive, Islamic State’s Sunni militants have had little success breaking beyond the provinces of Anbar in the west and Salahuddin north of Baghdad, as well as the strongly Sunni province of Nineveh, which includes Mosul.
Hagel suggested that success on the battlefield was only part of the answer. The key to progress was an inclusive government in Baghdad that could rally all Iraqis — something he said Abadi was working towards.REUTERS
