President Obama promises help Iraq as jihadists push on Baghdad



 Written : Mohamed Abdel fattah

Jun 12, 2014

 President Barack Obama  said on Thursday that he is looking at all options in helping the Iraqi government face down a growing insurgency.

"I don't rule out anything because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foot hold in either Iraq, or Syria, for that matter," Obama told reporters in the Oval Office.

"What we’ve seen over the last couple of days indicates the degree to which Iraq’s going to need more help," Obama said during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott [Unlink] at the White House. "So my team is working around the clock to identify how we can provide the most effective assistance to them. I don’t rule out anything, because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria, for that matter."

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) seized control of the big northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, seizing the governor's headquarters and rampaging through police stations, military bases and the airport

ISI is an Islamist insurgent group active in both Iraq and Syria that pledged allegiance to al Qaeda in 2004 ,it aim is to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and in Syria.

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.

It ignores international borders and has a presence all the way from Syria's Mediterranean coast to south of Baghdad. ISIS has thrived and mutated in the security vacuum that followed the departure of the last U.S. forces from Iraq and the civil war in Syria.

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  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.

Sources

voanews.

usatoday.

.foxnews.

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