America is focused on strengthening the Iraqi forces do not intend to air strikes

America is focused on strengthening the Iraqi forces do not intend to air strikes

06/12/2014

Washington / Agencies

The White House said the United States looks forward to strengthening the Iraqi forces to assist them in dealing with the militants instead of U.S. air strikes.

An official from the administration of President Barack Obama, who asked not to be named on Wednesday to Iraq in the past expressed his desire to air strikes using unmanned U.S. aircraft or to carry out the bombing of an American to help defeat the militants attack.

The gunmen overran year of a splinter group al-Qaeda city of Tikrit on Wednesday and Otabqgua the largest oil refinery in the country and have made more gains in the lead to rapid military Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad. The threat to the Baiji refinery after gunmen seized the group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant to the city of Mosul in northern Iraq to apply towards their goal to establish an Islamic caliphate.

But the White House pointed out that the air strikes are not a top priority because it is looking what he might do to assist the Iraqi government in the face of the attack, which gained strength from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

Said Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council of the White House in comments sent by e-mail, “while looking national security team are always a number of options, the current focus of our discussions with the Government of Iraq and considerations of our policies is to build the capacity of the Iraqis to face successfully the threat of the group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant “.

The official declined to provide details about what the United States might do to help Iraq, but only by saying the administration was “looking for a number of applications.” The Wall Street Journal had initially reported, citing senior U.S. officials that Iraq had hinted that it would allow the United States to launch air strikes on targets for al-Qaida in Iraq.

On the other hand New York Times reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki secretly request from the Obama administration to consider air strikes on militants areas with the risk of escalating Sunni insurgents in the past month. He said an Iraqi official told Reuters that Iraq wants U.S. air strikes but he believes that the Obama administration does not want to do this.

The official said that such strikes would be under the strategic framework agreement signed by the United States and Iraq in 2008. Official added that under this agreement may be limited to U.S. troops that Chen such attacks. But the official said he did not believe that the Americans have no interest in such a big commitment.

The New York Times quoted U.S. experts visited Baghdad earlier this year as saying that Iraqi leaders told them they hope to use U.S. air power to hit the assembly points and training to militants in Iraq and help the Iraqi forces in the country to prevent them from crossing into Syria.

The White House declined to confirm any of the reports of the two newspapers. Meehan said “I will not go into the details of diplomatic discussions, but the Government of Iraq has made clear it welcomes the support that we offer.” Meehan added, saying in a statement: “We have to speed up shipments of military equipment since the beginning of the year and increase the training of Iraqi security forces and worked intensely to help Iraq in the implementation of an integrated approach to address the terrorist threat … a comprehensive and continuing our assistance will increase.”

The fall of Mosul – the second largest city in Iraq – a blow to attempts by the Maliki government to defeat the militants who seized the areas in Iraq over the past year in the wake of the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The official said former U.S. action in Iraq, the issues that the Obama administration believes that the Iraq conflict is not affect the United States directly, and that Washington should stay away from it directly implicate herself.

Questioned another U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, the feasibility of the use of drones, saying it may not possible to effectively disseminated in a timely manner to eliminate the current crisis in Iraq.

uragency.net