Iraq asks U.S. to help in fighting Islamist insurgents



 Written : Mohamed Abdel fattah

 Jun 12, 2014

 Iraq's prime minister Nouri Maliki has asked the United States to carry out drone and air strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters, but the US has so far refused to get involved, according to a report.

Fighters from ISIL took Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Wednesday that seizure followed the capture of much of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, the previous day.

The group and its allies among local tribesmen also hold the city of Fallujah and other pockets of the Sunni-dominated Anbar province to the west of Baghdad.

Hundreds of young men crowded in front of the main army recruiting center in Baghdad on Thursday after authorities urged Iraqis to help battle the insurgents.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday condemned the upsurge of violence and the taking of Mosul by what it described as a "terrorist organisation" attempting to destabilise the region

Obama administration offered only tepid support for Iraq's beleaguered prime minister, and U.S. lawmakers openly questioned whether he should remain in power.

"He's obviously not been a good prime minister," said Sen. Bob Corker  of Tennessee, top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "He has not done a good job of reaching out to the Sunni population, which has caused them to be more receptive to al-Qaida efforts."

Al-Maliki's party won the most seats in the most recent elections held in April, but it failed to capture a clear majority.

Iraq had previously asked the US for access to armed drones that could be used against insurgent forces, many of which have been emboldened by the fierce civil war in neighboring Syria. Washington has thus far refused to supply those drones, officials said, but has supplied Hellfire missiles and surveillance drones.

Last year, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari [Unlink] suggested that armed drones could be used to target militants, but American officials balked, saying the request did not come from Maliki, The New York Times reported.

Accordiung to Reuters , the United States has supplied large amounts of weaponry to the Iraqi government since pulling its forces out in 2011,the arms included 300 Hellfire missiles, small arms and tank ammunition, helicopter-fired rockets, machineguns and rifles .

also delivered Bell IA-407 helicopters late last year, and surveillance equipment is on schedule for delivery this summer. There is also a proposed agreement to sell Apache attack helicopters to Iraq, but Baghdad has failed to heal festering sectarian and political divisions

The United States on Tuesday condemned the seizure of the Iraqi city of Mosul by Sunni Islamist insurgents, calling the situation "extremely serious" and urging fractious political groups to fight Iraq's enemies together.

The International Organization for Migration reports 500,000 people have left their homes since Saturday — and there were reports that water and electricity were cut off.

Iraq's prime minister Nouri Maliki asked parliament to declare a state of emergency in the country, and the region's governor, Atheel al-Nujaifi, asked the city's residents to "stand firm in their areas and to defend them against the strangers.

Iraqi soldiers threw down their guns and stripped off their uniforms as the insurgents approached on Tuesday, the New York Times reported.

Sources

RT

usatoday

Aljazeera.

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