The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: u s airstrikes
Kerry: U.S. Troops Might Deploy To Iraq If There Are ‘Very Dramatic Changes’

Kerry: U.S. Troops Might Deploy To Iraq If There Are ‘Very Dramatic Changes’

By Roy Gutman, McClatchy Foreign Staff

BAGHDAD — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry raised the possibility Wednesday that U.S. troops might be committed to ground operations in Iraq in extreme circumstances, the first hedging by an administration official on President Barack Obama’s pledge that there will be no U.S. boots on the ground to battle the Islamic State.

Kerry made the comment during a news conference after a day of meeting with Iraqi officials, who he said hadn’t requested or shown any desire to have U.S. troops or forces from any nation in Iraq to confront the Islamic State, the extremist organization that’s now in control of more than a third of the country’s territory.

Kerry reiterated that Obama has said no U.S. combat troops would be deployed to fight the Islamic State in Iraq, before adding, “Unless, obviously, something very, very dramatic changes.”

That formulation hasn’t been used previously by administration officials in discussing the growing U.S. confrontation with the Islamic State, and it’s sure to feed concerns that the United States may be making a greater commitment to a new conflict in the Middle East than it first intended.

In announcing the authorization for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq in August, Obama said they’d be limited to preventing Islamic State attacks on the Yazidi religious minority and to stopping any Islamic State advance on the Kurdish capital of Irbil. Since then, the United States has provided close air support for Kurdish troops fighting to recapture the Mosul Dam, Iranian-trained Shiite Muslim militias breaking the Islamic State siege of Amerli, and Sunni Muslim tribesmen battling to push Islamic State forces from towns near Haditha.

Kerry didn’t elaborate on what dramatic change might prompt the United States to commit ground forces, and it wasn’t clear whether his statement reflected administration policy. There was no immediate reaction from the White House.

Kerry said Iraqi leaders had promised him that they’d move swiftly to resolve the grievances of the Sunni and Kurdish communities, both of which are unhappy with the way the new Iraqi government was assembled.

Kerry praised the newly elected government, headed by veteran Shiite politician Haider al-Abadi, and said he’d received assurances that addressing the grievances of Iraq’s Sunni Arabs and Kurds was a top priority of the government.

He said Obama had sent him on the unannounced visit “to underscore to the people of Iraq that we will stand by them in this effort … and overcome the threat they face today.”

AFP Photo/Lucas Jackson

Interested in world news? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

IS Will ‘Soon’ Pose Threat To United States: Top General

IS Will ‘Soon’ Pose Threat To United States: Top General

Washington (AFP) — The U.S. military’s top general believes Islamic State extremists will “soon” pose a threat to America and Europe and that an international coalition will be needed to confront it, his spokesman said Monday.

U.S. commanders are preparing possible “options” to counter IS jihadists both in Iraq as well as Syria, according to General Martin Dempsey’s spokesman, Colonel Ed Thomas.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel adopted a more strident tone last week at a Pentagon news conference, suggesting the IS militants presented a dire threat that surpassed the danger posed by the Al-Qaeda network.

But Pentagon officials insisted Hagel and Dempsey shared the same views on the IS.

Dempsey “believes that ISIS (Islamic State) is a regional threat that will soon become a threat to the United States and Europe,” Thomas said in a statement.

“He (Dempsey) believes that ISIS must be pressured both in Iraq and in Syria,” he added.

“He believes that it will be necessary to form a coalition of capable regional and European partners to confront the ISIS threat so that their cloak of religious legitimacy is stripped away.”

Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has consistently portrayed IS as a regional threat that could evolve into a direct threat to the United States and Europe, as foreign fighters with Western passports could try to stage terror attacks.

Dempsey’s “current mission is to protect U.S. persons and facilities and that includes, of course, actions necessary to protect the homeland wherever those threats reside,” Thomas said.

In consultation with the U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, Dempsey “is preparing options to address ISIS both in Iraq and Syria with a variety of military tools including airstrikes,” the statement said.

Defeating the jihadists, who have seized territory in Syria and northern and western Iraq, will require “a sustained effort over an extended period of time and much more than just military action,” it added.

U.S. warplanes have been carrying out bombing raids in Iraq against the IS militants since August 8, with most of the nearly 100 strikes targeting jihadists in the north near Mosul dam. Iraqi and Kurdish troops have seized back control of the dam since the air attacks began.

The Obama administration has said all options remain open on potential military strikes in Syria, but there has been no decision to go ahead with bombing the extremists there.

AFP Photo/Saul Loeb

Interested in world news? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

U.S. Aircraft Bomb Targets In Northern Iraq

U.S. Aircraft Bomb Targets In Northern Iraq

Washington (AFP) — American warplanes have bombed Islamist militants in northern Iraq near the Mosul dam, the U.S. military’s Central Command said on Thursday.

“U.S. military forces continued to attack ISIL (Islamic State) terrorists in support of Iraqi Security Force operations, using fighter and attack aircraft to conduct six airstrikes in the vicinity of the Mosul Dam,” it said in a statement.

The air raids were carried out over the last 24 hours, a U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The air attacks come after President Barack Obama called for decisive international action against the “cancer” of jihadist extremism in Iraq and Syria.

The latest strikes destroyed or damaged three Humvee armored vehicles, another vehicle, and “multiple” homemade bomb “emplacements,” Central Command said.

The U.S. military has conducted 90 air strikes in Iraq since August 8, including the latest bombing raids. Of those 90 operations, 57 have been in support of Iraqi government forces near the Mosul dam, it said.

Obama approved the air raids amid rising alarm over the threat posed by the Islamist militants who have seized territory to the north and west of Baghdad.

AFP Photo/Ahmad Al-Rubaye

Interested in world news? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!