President Barack Obama has told the United States Congress up to 275 military personnel will be deployed to Iraq after rebels seized control of the country's north.
The troops will provide support and security for US personnel and the country's embassy in Baghdad.
"This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting US citizens and property, if necessary, and is equipped for combat," Obama said in a letter to legislators.
"This force will remain in Iraq until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed."
The president said he was notifying Congress under the War Powers Resolution.
The US was also considering drone strikes in Iraq and has sent more ships to the Gulf, as the UN said it was pulling its staff out of Baghdad following lightning advances by the Sunni rebels.
John Kerry, the secretary of state, on Monday said drone strikes were "not the whole answer" to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's campaign but added they they could be "one of the options that are important".........http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/us-send-up-275-troops-iraq-2014616225719457994.html
17/6/14
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Obama sends troops to Iraq to protect US missions...
ReplyDeleteUS President Barack Obama notified Congress on Monday that up to 275 troops are being sent to Iraq to provide support and security for US personnel and the American Embassy in Baghdad.
About 170 of those forces have already arrived and another 100 soldiers will be on standby in a nearby country until they are needed, a US official told AP.
While Obama has vowed to keep US forces out of combat in Iraq, he said in his notification to Congress that the personnel moving into the region are equipped for direct fighting.
And separately, three US officials told AP the White House was considering sending a contingent of special forces soldiers to Iraq. Their limited mission – which has not yet been approved – would focus on training and advising beleaguered Iraqi troops, many of whom have fled their posts across the nation’s north and west as the Sunni insurgency has advanced in the worst threat to the country since American troops left in 2011.
The moves come at the White House wrestles with an array of options for helping Iraq repel the insurgency, which has captured large swathes of territory collaring Baghdad, the capital of the Shiite-led government. In a rare move, US officials reached out to Iran on Monday to discuss ways the long-time foes might help stop the militants known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), who are also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The White House said the forces authorised for support and security would include US Marines, US Navy, US Army personnel................http://www.france24.com/en/20140617-obama-us-troops-iraq-protect-isis/
17/6/14
Iraqi army repels ISIS Islamist advance in Baquba..
ReplyDeleteIslamist militants took control overnight of parts of the central Iraqi city of Baquba on Tuesday but security forces eventually repelled the assault, army and police officers said.
The overnight attack took place in the centre of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, with militants temporarily occupying several neighbourhoods.
The city, located just 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Baghdad, is the closest the fighting has come to the capital since a major militant offensive swept down from the north last week.
At least 44 prisoners were killed in an overnight assault on a police station in the city, security and medical officials said on Tuesday, but accounts differed as to who was responsible for the killings. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's security spokesman said the prisoners were killed by insurgents and other officials said they were killed by security forces as they tried to escape................http://www.france24.com/en/20140617-iraqi-isis-isil-islamist-baquba-advance/
Iraq formally asks US to launch air strikes against rebels...
ReplyDeleteIraq has formally called on the US to launch air strikes against jihadist militants who have seized several key cities over the past week.
"We have a request from the Iraqi government for air power," confirmed top US military commander Gen Martin Dempsey in front of US senators.
Earlier the Sunni insurgents launched an attack on Iraq's biggest oil refinery at Baiji north of Baghdad.
Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki earlier urged Iraqis to unite against the militants.
Government forces are battling to push back ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and its Sunni Muslim allies in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, after the militants overran the second city, Mosul, last week.
US President Barack Obama was meeting senior Congress members on Wednesday to discuss the Iraq crisis.
Ahead of the briefing Senate leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said he did not "support in any way" getting American troops involved in the Iraqi "civil war".
But Gen Dempsey told a Senate panel that it was in America's "national interest to counter [ISIS] wherever we find them".................http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27905849
US Official Says Iraq Requests Airstrikes...
ReplyDeleteThe top U.S. military official says the Iraqi government has requested U.S. airstrikes to aid the fight against Sunni Islamist militants who have taken over key cities of northern Iraq.
Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that Iraq has requested U.S. air strikes against the militants, who attacked Iraq's main oil refinery Wednesday.
Dempsey said, particularly as a veteran, he is disappointed by the siege of the militants in Iraq.
"Al Qaida-inspired extremists raising flags over Iraq's embattled cities triggers in me the same thing that runs through the minds of any veteran who served there, which is bitter disappointment that Iraq's leaders failed to unite for the good of their people," said Dempsey.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he believes it is in the interest of U.S. national security to honor that request.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the blame for the insurgency lies not just with the militants, but also with the Iraqi government for failing to establish a working relationship among different groups in the country's leadership.
"I think we go back to who is responsible for this: ISIL, they invaded, but also this current government in Iraq has never fulfilled the commitments it made to bring a unity government together with the Sunnis the Kurds and the Shia," said Hagel.
The clash between militants and security forces took place at the refinery in Beiji, located about halfway between Baghdad and Mosul. ....................http://www.voanews.com/content/us-official-says-iraq-requests-airstrikes/1939806.html
18/6/14